MORE than 70 taxi drivers have lodged appeals before Skipton magistrates against a decision to stop them vying for trade in Skipton Bus Station from 11pm.

Craven District Council decided to stop hackney carriage drivers waiting in the bus station until after 11.45pm because of a new late night bus service.

But, drivers complained that they had been able to use the bus station as an overspill waiting area from 11pm since 1987.

They claimed they were providing an invaluable service to those coming out of the local pubs at closing time.

Since the appeals were lodged the council has suspended its decision until further discussions can be held. A taxi liaison meeting will be held on November 6.

The court appeals are also being held in abeyance to see if a solution can be found.

Council solicitor Michael Turnbull said taxi drivers had been "allowed informally" to park on the bus station after the last bus had gone .

"It appears that this was introduced as an experiment in 1987, but no change in the council's licence conditions to accommodate this arrangement has ever been made," stated Mr Turnbull, in a letter to the National Private Hire Association dated October 10.

The association's general secretary, Bryan Roland, said: "The trade were fully convinced that they had full permission to use the bus station which, after 14 years, is fully understandable."

He added that taxis were the fastest way to get people away from the town centre after they had been drinking.

He said that for the past 14 years hundreds of thousands of taxi movements had taken place with virtually no problems.

Mr Roland said the appeals lodged at court were not a "tit-for-tat" exercise, but were a plea for the council to take a closer look at what it was doing. He added that if councillors failed to do this then the situation would have to be investigated by the courts.