Taxi drivers are demanding action from the council

Trade groups were meeting Dundee City Council's taxi liaison group to discuss a list of grievances.

They include concerns over the number of taxi rank spaces, over-provision of licences and private hire firms.

Following the talks, cab drivers - who have already staged rolling road blocks in the city centre - said they would move for industrial action.

Trade representatives said they left the talks after the local authority issued a list of written responses to their grievances rather than engage in discussion.

The drivers have been holding back for a long time. Nobody wants to do it but our backs are against the wall Erik Thoresen Dundee Wheelchair Association

Erik Thoresen from the Dundee Wheelchair Taxi Association said strike action was the next step.

He said: "They were trying to dictate to us. We've got a meeting on Tuesday to put it to all our members. Personally, I want strike action. I want a date and a time and we'll go ahead with this.

"The drivers have been holding back for a long time. Nobody wants to do it but our backs are against the wall."

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Graeme Stephen of the Dundee Taxi Owners Association said he did not think the talks would settle the dispute.

Resolve matters

After emerging from the talks, Mr Stephen said: "We won't be sitting around the table with the council while there are non badge holders there."

The council's licensing convener, John Letford, said the local authority's efforts to engage in discussion with some in the trade had been "flung back in our faces".

He added: "It is clear that sections of the taxi trade in Dundee are hell bent on causing disruption and opposition for the sake of it.

"We have answered their concerns in detail and said from day one there is a forum for discussing issues, a forum that the trade itself helped set up.

"It is clear that they are not prepared to listen to reason and I am bitterly disappointed that it has reached this stage."

The chief executive of the 203020 private hire firm accused a small minority of drivers of "stirring up trouble".

'Potential backlash'

Davie Young said: "There are 1,750 drivers and about 700 taxis in Dundee, and there was only 20-30 drivers turned up before the meeting.

"I am very disappointed that it ended like this.

"Everybody was there to resolve matters, and they walked out because they didn't get the answers they wanted to hear."

He added that his business was up to 25% busier since cab drivers had started threatening industrial action.

Among the list of 13 grievances put forward by drivers were calls for CCTV footage to be used to prevent private hire firms picking up hires from non-designated areas.

In a written response the council said: "CCTV is primarily in place as a crime deterrent and detection system.

"It monitors the public space for the benefit of all who live, work and visit the city.

"It is not a tool to be used lightly. The potential backlash from the general public if it were used to monitor private hire vehicles and not crime would be rightly justified."