ANGRY taxi drivers taking punters to Royal Ascot claimed they were being blocked in by buses.

Alan Rowley, secretary of York Taxi Association, described the situation on the first day of Ascot as a "nightmare", with many taxi drivers not being able to stop to pick up passengers because of buses blocking their way.

He said taxis picking up and dropping off at York station and at Knavesmire Road were being blocked in or prevented from getting to their pick-up points by First shuttle buses.

Mr Rowley said: "It caused a lot of frayed tempers on the first day of Ascot.

"There were just too many buses so they weren't all picking up where they should have been and as a result they ended up blocking people in and drivers lost out on fares as a result."

There are 158 hackney carriages and 120 taxis with official Royal Ascot orange badges, allowing them to take passengers to and from the racecourse.

These were granted to drivers on the strict understanding that taxis would only use the Knavesmire Road car park as a pick-up and drop-off point, with buses and private hire cabs having separate pick up and drop off points.

Mr Rowley said many taxi drivers now feared they would be stripped of their Ascot permits if they were forced to stop elsewhere because they couldn't get in.

He said that part of the problem was that there were too many buses being laid on and they were not sticking to their designated drop-off points.

But First York's head of service delivery, Peter McCarthy, said some taxi drivers were also behaving irresponsibly by blocking buses and stopping them from stopping in turn.

Mr McCarthy said: "There have been the odd incidents where taxis have been blocking buses and buses blocking taxis in because of the sheer volume of traffic.

"We are working with the taxi drivers and the police at Ascot to make sure that everything is running smoothly for the rest of the week."

Updated: 12:54 Saturday, June 18, 2005