A COUNCIL is to take action to prevent motorists from illegally parking at a taxi rank in the centre of Darlington.

Darlington Borough Council wants to adopt an area around the town's covered market as a public highway in a bid to stop people parking their vehicles on the site.

Taxi drivers have complained to the authority that their business is being affected by the fact they cannot always get access to the rank.

Members of Darlington council's cabinet will be told today that the problems are caused when the land is used as a taxi rank from 6pm each day.

Motorists leave their vehicles beyond this time and taxi drivers say this forces them to double park and obstruct East Row.

On occasions, this had led to taxis being hit by other vehicles on the main road.

The responsibility for enforcing the rank falls on the council and, because the land is classed as a public footway, it is difficult for police to assist in this enforcement.

The taxi drivers took their complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman but, although the council was found not to be at fault, it was recognised that the problem needed to be addressed.

With this in mind, the council now wants to adopt the land as a public highway, which would allow police to issue penalty notices to vehicles parked on the taxi rank or obstructing loading areas.

And taxi drivers will be urged to help by contacting police directly if they cannot get access to the rank.

Mick Kennedy, president of the Darlington Independent Taxi Traders Organisation, said he welcomed the move.

"It's nice to see the council adopting some laws which taxi drivers have been calling for for years," he said.

"We don't want the police to be there all the time, but it will be good if we can warn people who persistently park illegally on the rank that they risk getting a ticket if they don't move their vehicles."