A TAXI firm owner has won his fight to increase charges in Stockton.

Fenwick Gair, who runs 15 taxis and employs five drivers, applied to increase fares to help boost the £3,500 earnings his drivers make every year.

Stockton Borough Council's licensing committee agreed to increase Hackney Carriage fares after hearing how taxi drivers in the town are facing crippling costs for insurance, vehicles and maintenance that could not be recouped with the previous charges.

Under the new licence he, and other firms in the town, can earn up to an extra 17p per mile and a further 50p on journeys less than half-a-mile.

Mr Gair told the committee: "We have not had a realistic fare increase since 1999.

"We are in a situation where every time there is an increase in anything to do with our vehicles, our income goes down because our costs increase.

"To maintain existing cabs and purchase new ones costs a fortune, and when you add that to the ever increasing insurance costs we are left with very little. We need a return on our income. We cannot continue to run as a charity."

The new charges provide a benchmark for other cash-strapped taxi firms in the town. With massive competition now between nearly 300 council-registered Hackney Carriages and the same number of private cabs in the town, operators are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet.

It's thought the extra charges could take their average earnings pass the £6,000 mark - an equivalent of about £120 take home pay per week.

Under the new licence, cabbies will now be able to charge more between midnight and 6am on Boxing Day, New Year's Day and Easter Sunday.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Gair said: "This will help us a little bit, but it is still nowhere near enough.

"We need a review of the charges to be set in place on a regular basis now. To help do this we need to reform the old Hackney Carriages Association in Stockton which appears to have disappeared."