BLACKPOOL'S taxi drivers are a step nearer to getting funding for CCTV cameras in their cabs.

At a meeting of the full Blackpool Borough Council last week councillors voted unanimously to look at ways of finding money for the cameras.

A proposal was put to the council by Coun Henry Mitchell calling for the executive to "consider how best to secure financial assistance for the initial cost of CCTV installation."

Coun Mitchell said: "We are a tourism town and I would like to think that if people get in a cab it is reasonably safe."

But cab owners could be put off installing CCTV in their cabs because of the cost, he said.

Mike Japp, a member of the Taxi Owners' Association Committee, said the general feeling among taxi drivers was that it was a good idea but the cost would be a deterrent.

He said: "A basic CCTV system costs about £400 and that price only goes up. The taxi trade is not good at the moment and there's even talk of putting our licence fee up to £200. The money's just not there.

"The local authority should help with the cost of CCTV, especially if they want to oversee the whole scheme and make use of the tapes."

Coun Mitchell said funding would be "an encouragement" to taxi drivers to install the CCTV systems.

"They are running a business -- they are self-employed," he said. "It is not mandated, and it is down to what they can afford."

And he said if Blackpool cab drivers installed CCTV cameras it would be "a first" for the town.

Mike Japp had one reservation about the possible success of the cameras. "Some people who we carry in the evenings are on drugs and it makes no difference to them whether they're caught on camera or not. I don't think it would be a deterrent to them".

Coun Mitchell added that the council's chiefs would now look at sourcing funding.

"It will now go to the executive committee with a view to them contacting the Home Office and the Government to ask for help to offset some of the cost of these cameras," he said.

"I am delighted with the outcome because we were all thinking the same and at the end of the day it affects us all."