Taxi drivers who say the town needs more ranks have again threatened to boycott Watford town centre.

Hackney carriage drivers have been calling for the council to put more taxi ranks in the town centre.

However the issue came to a head last weekend when police started giving out fixed penalty notices to illegally parked cabs.

It is understood the latest dispute involving hackney carriage drivers started as cabs queued to get onto the taxi rank opposite The Colosseum, in Rickmansworth Road, at about midnight on Saturday, September 8.

As the cabbies queued along the main road waiting for the rank to clear, officers started handing out £30 fixed penalty notices to vehicles stopped on double yellow lines.

A small section of drivers then got out of their cabs and refused to pick up any more of the hundreds of late night revellers waiting to go home.

The problem was quickly diffused but taxi drivers have said unless the number of taxi ranks in the town increases, they would opt for a premeditated strike.

Chairman of Watford's Hackney Carriage Drivers' Association, Shujait Sardar, said the problems stem from the fact they have nowhere else to go.

He said: "There is only enough space for about nine cars there and obviously when there is a queue of people at the rank, the taxis start queueing up.

"Sometimes the police enforce it, sometimes they don't.

"But I think they should realise there are a large number of people in town and for a few minutes on Friday and Saturdays I don't think it does any harm to turn a blind eye."

There are currently 25 spaces on taxi ranks in the town centre, with the Rickmansworth Road rank big enough to hold nine cars.

However, there are now more than 200 taxis operating in Watford.

Watford Borough Council said it is looking into finding additional taxi ranks, possibly on the bottom floor of Gade car park.

The car park is currently owned by Capital Shopping Centres, which runs The Harlequin shopping centre, but an agreement is not expected before Christmas, if at all.

However, the taxi drivers say unless something happens soon they will start to boycott Watford town centre.

Should the council do more for the town's cabbies? Or would a strike only harm revellers? Fill out the form below and have your say.