Cabbies are queuing up to oppose plans to ban taxis from bus lanes in Oxford.

Oxfordshire County Council, the highways authority, has made the proposal because it says taxi passengers should not enjoy advantages over other car travellers in Oxford.

But Alan Woodward, secretary of the City of Oxford Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association (Colta), said: "We're concerned about the effect on some of our passengers - particularly the disabled and elderly people.

"These are people who often don't have much money to spend," he said.

A Colta-commissioned study by Oxford University's Transport Studies Unit found that keeping hackney carriages and private hire vehicles out of bus lanes could increase fares for some journeys by 68 per cent and journey times by up to 120 per cent.

The association lost a High Court battle with the county council last year, in which it tried to prevent the council from squeezing taxis out of Oxford's bus lanes. Barbara Chadwick, of the Oxford branch of the Disabled Drivers' Association, said the association had always supported the taxi drivers' demand to use bus lanes because cabs were a form of public transport for some people.

"This is discrimination against part of the public who may not be able to use buses," she added.

"We feel quite hot under the collar about it."

Oxford City Council, which is acting as the county council's agents, has traditionally considered taxis a form of public transport and supported Colta's position.

The city's highways and traffic committee will consider people's views after the deadline for public comment on August 28, before making its recommendations. Dariusz Seroczynski, a county council engineer, said: "It is not the city council's decision because we are the highway authority. The ultimate decision is up to the county committee.

"There has always been an argument that usually taxis carry only one passenger.

"Sometimes we felt that the advantage of one passenger over other car users was not necessarily justified."

The final decision will lie with the county council's highways and road safety sub-committee.

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