TAXI drivers claim to have been left ‘scrambling to make ends meet’ with the Market Place revamp having swallowed up most of their spaces.

Beginning in February, the work to improve the centre of Cirencester for pedestrians has meant there are now only two allocated spaces in the Market Place with around 20 taxis regularly vying to use them and 82 registered across the district.

In February, the town council told the Standard that despite the cuts to the rank in the centre, taxi spaces had been provided in South Way, while there is also a rank near the library in The Waterloo.

However, Mark Boulton, owner of Centurion Taxis, said buses often take up the spaces allocated in South Way while the spaces in The Waterloo are “just too far away” for elderly and disabled shoppers who make up much of their trade.

“A lot of the cabbies are just scrambling to make ends meet at the moment,” he said.

“We buy our licences from Cotswold District Council, which entitles us to have a taxi rank, which we don’t really have.”

Adrian Chapman, another driver, said: “I’ve done it 30 years, you’re still getting the same customers you had years ago.

“They like to do their shopping, wander up to the Market Place and get a taxi.”

Many drivers are also frustrated by the lack of signage, indicating where the spaces are, which has been made even less obvious by the construction work.

Mark, who has been driving a taxi in Cirencester for more than 25 years, said: “They took down the sign [for the Market Place rank] eight years ago, along with the telephone, and never replaced it.

“Nowhere else in the country would you find a town without a sign saying: ‘Taxi Rank’”.

To try and improve the situation, some cabbies recently coned out a temporary rank outside the parish church.

Craig Lucas, owner of Phoenix Cabs, said: “What me and a few other taxi drivers did was when they put the cones out [for the diverted route through the Market Place], we angled them a bit so you could fit three or four taxis back here.”

Cirencester Town Council’s chief executive, Andrew Tubb, said: “We are aware of the concerns and in addition to the provision in South Way, which was requested by Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) as part of the planning process, we will maintain as many spaces as we are able to throughout the works.

“Recognising the importance of having a taxi rank in a central location, we asked GCC to include this in the recent public consultation on traffic regulation orders which relate to future loading/unloading, on-street parking and taxi rank provision in the Market Place.”

A spokesman for CDC said: "We are aware of these concerns and are working hard to resolve this matter. 

"Working with the town council, we should be able to provide a suitable short-term solution in the near future, and we are also pursuing longer term options."