TAXPAYERS are facing a legal bill of about £20,000 after a court rejected an attempt to force every taxi on the streets of a North-East city to be white.

Durham Crown Court yesterday dismissed an appeal by Durham City Council against an earlier magistrates' ruling against the all-white policy.

The decision comes after a 12-month dispute between the authority and Durham Independent Taxi Association over the colour code for the city's 60-strong Hackney cab fleet.

The policy, which insisted all hackney cabs - which can be hailed in the street - are white, was introduced last August.

The council argued it was necessary to help members of the public differentiate between cabs and private hire vehicles.

However, furious cabbies claimed they would have to bear the costs of a change and staged a one-day taxi strike in the city.

In November, association chairman Adrian Fets successfully challenged the ruling before the city's magistrates. A further 26 drivers have since lodged cases.

The city council appealed to Durham Crown Court, which decided the case during a four-day hearing, the last two days sitting at Consett Magistrates' Court.

Judge Maurice Carr, sitting with two magistrates, ruled in favour of the drivers and awarded costs - yet to be decided - against the council.

Judge Carr said he would outline the reasons for the decision at a later date.

However, he made repeated reference to the terms of the 1976 regulations governing the industry, which said conditions, such as cab colour, could be imposed if the licensing authority deemed it "reasonably necessary".

He questioned whether there was any evidence that the change to all-white cars had been demonstrated to be necessary.

Judge Carr highlighted cities such as Oxford and Cambridge, which had no colour policies and asked why taxi drivers in Durham would have to bear extra expense "when there is no problem".

Following the hearing, Mr Fets said: "It has taken 12 months and it has been a waste of taxpayers' money."

A spokesman for Durham City Council said the authority wished to study the detail of the judgement before commenting further.

Around the country, just over 20 per cent of licensing authorities now have a colour policy for their cabs. The hearing heard that all seven councils in County Durham were considering introducing an all-white policy for cabs in their area and were following the case extremely closely.