A CONVOY of cabs caused traffic chaos in Burnley town centre when drivers took part in a go slow protest over the loss of a rank.

Thirty three Hackney carriages under police escort travelled in a large figure of eight around the town to protest about the £2million redevelopment of the bus station which will lead to the loss of the rank on Croft Street.

Other motorists were caught up in the queues especially near to the bus station and Manchester Road, where tailbacks built up.

Today the leader of Burnley Council, Coun Stuart Caddy, pledged to work with the drivers to resolve their complaints.

The convoy left the rank at 1.30pm yesterday and crawled round the town via Hargreaves Street, Hammerton Street, Active Way, Church Street and Centenary Way for 45 minutes. All the cars then stopped on Manchester Road outside the town hall where they blasted their car horns and parked up for 30 minutes.

They were hoping to present a petition bearing 490 names to the chief executive Dr Gillian Taylor or a representative from her office, but they were in a meeting and not available.

A spokesman for Burnley Hackney Carriage Association Habib Rehman said: "We were seen by Ian Wolstencroft who agreed to set up a meeting between David Brown, who is in charge of the development at the bus station, and the drivers hopefully within the next ten days and we will be handing in the petition then.

"They are talking of making the rank at Gunsmith Place near to the subway and us not having any access on to Croft Street. "We want to be have a pick up rank on Croft Street because what is planned will cause inconvenience to the general public and the Hackney carriages will lose business."

Iftikhar Ahmed, another association member, said: "The new rank will mean old people with shopping bags and mums with prams will have extra distance to walk to get a Hackney carriage.

"If the council doesn't listen to us then we will be holding other similar peaceful protests in the future."

An earlier planned protest had been put off so that a meeting could take place with council officials but that again ended in stalemate.

Mr Rehman said: "We feel that the council is not listening to our needs and that is why we protested today."

Council officers were unavailable for comment.

Council leader Stuart Caddy said: "I know we have been in consultation with the Hackney Carriage Association on four or five occasions recently.

"I can assure them we shall look at any petition they present us and hopefully come to a satisfactory agreement."

Both the Hackney Carriage Association and Burnley Private Hire Association have been involved in disputes with the council in recent years.

Two years ago black cab drivers protested at a decision to increase the number of Hackney Cab licences from 16 to 34 and took part in protests in Croft Street.

The private hire drivers staged two all out strikes over increases in fees and only recently were protesting over another fee increase of 3.5 per cent.