Taxi drivers are calling for radical changes to parking arrangements in Wantage town centre.

At a Taxi Forum meeting for taxi operators and firms licensed by the Vale of White District Council, cab drivers called for up to 16 taxi rank spaces to be provided in the Market Place.

Peter Breakspear, who co-owns Evenlode Taxis with his wife, Amanda, said: "Since the taxi rank spaces were allocated at the beginning of the 1980s, Wantage and Grove have increased in size dramatically and more major development is planned.

"The district council keeps issuing taxi licences, so there are now about 25 cars working the Wantage taxi rank, but there are only four marked spaces.

"We have reached a point where the rank is jam-packed, so taxis end up double-parked and then have to be moved on by the traffic warden."

Mr Breakspear said he wrote to the council two years ago suggesting disabled parking spaces should be moved and the taxi rank extended.

He said moving disabled spaces from the centre of the Market Place would make it safer for disabled drivers.

Gordon Willcox, the Vale's principal engineer, said: "We will be extending the existing taxi rank in Wantage Market Place by two spaces and have given the Taxi Forum an undertaking to completely rethink parking arrangements outside Barclays Bank and King Alfred's pub."

But he said it was unlikely that 16 taxi spaces could be provided because of competing demands from traders who wanted short-stay parking for shoppers.