TAXI fares in St Helens are likely to rise but councillors have limited the proposed increase.

Members of the council's licensing sub-committee have rejected a proposal by local Hackney carriage operators that there should be a substantial increase to offset fuel price rises.

St Helens Taxi Owners Association wanted an increase of 10p per mile on the tariffs, but the sub-committee has agreed increases that will mean only 10 to 20p more on a whole journey. The present standard rate for up to a mile should remain at £1.90, which means a four-mile journey will increase from £4.60 to £4.80.

The night and Bank Holiday rate of £2.10 for a basic one-mile journey will also stay the same with an extra 10p applied to the charge after that. The sub-committee also made a similar decision on Christmas and New Year rates, retaining the one-mile rate at £2.60 and allowing a 10p increase after that.

A special additional tariff has been agreed for the Millennium when taxi drivers will be able to charge the normal New Year rate plus a surcharge of 50p for an individual or £1 for more than one passenger between 7pm on December 31 and noon on New Year's Day. Taxi owners had asked for permission to double the normal tariff right through to midnight on New Year's Day.

The increases in tariff will now have to be formally advertised and any objections considered before they can be introduced.

The sub-committee heard that Hackney drivers had faced an increase in diesel prices amounting to more than 18 per cent over the past 10 months. But chairman, John Fletcher, told members: "We understand that they have had to face fuel price increases but we have all had to suffer them. I don't know of anybody who has received an 18 per cent pay increase to pay for it."

The increases do not affect private-hire companies which set their own rates.

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