Highland Council officials and police have met with worried taxi operators and other objectors to the closure of the Castle Wynd taxi rank.
Inverness Taxi Alliance has been spearheading the campaign against the closure arguing it would irreparably damage the trade.
However, the local authority is determined to improve the look of the area and believes the current location of the taxi rank is far from ideal.
A council spokeswoman said: “Officials listened to the points made and a constructive discussion took place which resulted in a number of suggestions being made.”
At one stage, council officials offered more rank spaces in exchange for withdrawing objections, according to the ITA Chairman, Andrew MacDonald.
He agreed the meeting had been constructive in a limited sense, welcoming any additional rank space, but added he was “puzzled” by the offer.
Mr MacDonald said one council official had claimed that “all the new spaces on offer would be contingent on all the objections being withdrawn”.
He said: “That statement puzzled the objectors and I think it is highly unlikely that any of the people present will withdraw.
“I pointed out that while we accepted that the subject of the meeting was Castle Wynd, this was only a symptom of a much wider crisis.”
The authority has conceded that if the objections remain as Mr MacDonald indicated, it is likely the matter will go before the City of Inverness Area Committee set for May 31.
Last month, taxi drivers in the city said they would consider strike action with “morale at an all-time low” over a range of issues.
To date, more than 700 people have signed a petition against the removal of the rank.
