CAB drivers have highlighted concerns about the inadequate size of Basingstoke's taxi ranks and the extra traffic congestion created by Festival Place.

Last weekend, taxi customers were forced to wait longer while the hackney carriages struggled to get back to the railway station rank. To avoid the traffic, drivers had to take longer detours around the town.

The extent of their problems was revealed as the borough council looks at recommendations to increase the fleet of hackney carriages by nine.

The issues were raised on Tuesday when the council's licensing committee met to discuss a taxi survey which found there was a significant lack of hackney carriage services within the borough.

The council currently restricts the number of licences to 46 - a figure that has remained unchanged since 1992, when the last survey was conducted. As well as calling for more cabs, the 2002 survey has also suggested introducing new 24-hour ranks at the West Ham leisure centre and, particularly, at the Top of the Town.

Addressing the committee, Melvyn Leaman, secretary of the Basingstoke Hackney Carriage Federation 2002, said: "Last Friday and Saturday the congestion was awful around the station. We had to use rat runs to get back there, going miles out of our way. Queues built up because we couldn't get to them.

"We're not opposed to extra plates being issued. Anything that serves the public well is fine. We have a problem with the way it's going to be done. I plead on behalf of the trade to give us realistic rank space for the benefit of the public and the trade."

Currently there are 18 spaces at Basingstoke railway station rank and two at Chineham Shopping Centre.

A temporary 14-space rank was built in Church Street following the closure of an 11-order one in Lower Wote Street to make way for Festival Place. The order on the rank expired last November but the cabs still use the remaining four spaces, although one is now taken up by a skip.

Another unlicensed rank is situated by the bus station, but drivers say because it is owned by Festival Place landlords Grosvenor and not the council, and they are not insured while on it.

Melvyn said the federation would like to see the rank ordered for hackney carriages and signs put up in Festival Place so people know where they are.

"It's on an ideal site but we can't use it," he said. "A driver picked someone up there on Monday and it took him 12 minutes to get out of the rank. On Sunday it is an overspill area for the public to park. You just can't get in there."

The council is also considering whether to continue its policy of limiting hackney carriage licenses or whether to delimit, which the federation claims would lead to a lowering of standards.

Before making its decision early next year, the council will consult the public, police, all licence holders, user groups, disabled groups, and councillors.

A spokeswoman for Grosvenor said: "Grosvenor and Basingstoke council, in consultation with the local taxi and private hire trade and other interested parties, are currently working together to ensure that Festival Place customers have access to the best level of hackney carriage and private hire vehicle provision."