A TAXI rank outside Southend Hospital will be scrapped after traffic chaos is believed to have delayed an ambulance carrying a heart attack patient.

From this weekend, the cab rank in Prittlewell Chase will be relocated about 80m west of its current location, to try to stop ambulances being held up by long queues of traffic which block the entrance.

Tory councillor Melvyn Day, who will stand in the Prittlewell ward at the next local elections, backed Southend Council's decision to move the rank.

He said: "The taxis are causing or adding to the problem of traffic congestion down the road outside the hospital.

"It's backed up and causing an obstruction to other through traffic, so everything is being held up. Because the hospital authority put their car park barrier right on the boundary of the road, at busy times, when there's more than two cars, they will be waiting in the slow lane. The taxis have been adding to it."

Davina Millership, Southend Council's traffic spokeswoman, said: "We have been in discussion with taxi drivers.

"Weather permitting, the taxi waiting area is due to be relocated this weekend. This will give extra length for vehicles queuing for the car park, and will help maintain offside lane traffic flow. These changes do not affect the taxi rank within the hospital grounds."

But Leigh town councillor Jean Rowswell, who regularly visits the hospital because she has a pacemaker, said she believed the biggest problem was the parking barriers.

She said: "An ambulance tried to get into the hospital last week because of a cardiac arrest. But cabs aren't the problem. It's the barriers coming in and out of the hospital. They make it impossible to get in and out."

Ian Saxton, managing director of AC Radio Cabs, agreed. He said: "The main problem is the car park and barrier system. When it's full up you can't get into it.

"People come along and queue up to the main road. Whoever gave the planning permission didn't put signs up explaining if the car park is full you're not allowed to wait.

"In other towns, where they have systems like this, traffic is not allowed to wait."

The hospital barriers shut once the car park is full and do not open until a space is available, causing traffic to queue.

The hospital confirmed three designated taxi spaces outside the tower block outpatients entrance will remain.

The ambulance service would not confirm the heart patient incident, but said relocation of the taxi rank would "make life easier".