THE decision to open a York street for taxi traffic during Royal Ascot has been hailed by city cabbies.

The York Taxi Association and York Private Hire Association today said they fully supported City of York Council's decision to reopen Terry Avenue during the five-day festival of horse racing.

In a joint statement, the two bodies said: "We feel this is a very positive step forward that will hopefully benefit all future events held in York.

"From the taxi/private hire point of view, we knew that if we had any hope of moving this amount of people we needed a traffic proposal that would reduce the journey cycle time.

"Our first proposal was a total one way system that we felt could meet the demand. However, the opening of Terry Avenue which was part of our second option has given us the ability to meet most of that demand."

Updated: 10:13 Monday, March 21, 2005