A HIGH Court judge says an urgent review of taxi trade law is needed to stop an invasion of drivers using cheap licences in North-East towns.

The cost of licensing taxis in Berwick-upon-Tweed is far lower than many other areas and a sharp increase in hackney carriages bearing the town’s plates has led to tension among drivers.

Stockton Borough Council has led the complaints, pointing out that its officers have no power over cabs registered outside its boundaries.

Berwick cabs can operate in other North-East towns and cities on pre-booked journeys.

However, if they “stand or ply for hire” outside their place of registration, they are committing an offence.

Council officers swooped on two cabbies parked in Stockton’s Tower Street car park last year.

Drivers Habib Hussain and Gholamreza Zamanian, and taxi operator Alan Fidler, who trades as Tees Valley Cabs, were prosecuted for alleged breaches of licensing laws, but all three were cleared by a District Judge.

That ruling triggered a test case at the High Court, which Lord Justice Munby said was of “great significance” to the taxi trade, local authorities up and down the country and the public.

After pointing out the widespread confusion and conflicts in the law on hackney carriages, the judges said “consideration and review by Parliament” is desperately needed.

The judges recognised the legal distinction between hackney carriages and “private hire vehicles” – commonly known as minicabs – and upheld the “inherent right of the hackney carriage proprietor to undertake prebooked hirings anywhere in England and Wales”.

Councillor Steve Nelson, Stockton Borough Council’s cabinet member for housing and community safety, said: “This issue limits our ability to ensure public safety by regulating the taxi trade.”

Darlington taxi driver George Jenkinson said: “We see hackney carriages from Berwick in Darlington all the time. There used to be a queue of people waiting for taxis, now there is a queue of taxis and no people. We are losing money.”