TAXI drivers in Exeter fear their livelihoods could be destroyed if plans to remove restrictions on the number of hackney carriages are given the go-ahead.

Councillors will consider proposals to de-restrict the quantity of cabbies allowed to collect passengers from the city’s 10 taxi ranks and be hailed in the street.

But Exeter drivers insist there is not enough trade to justify an increase on the current 65 licensed hackneys and predict it would lead to a reduced quality of cabs.

The cabbies claim they would not be able to earn enough money to stay in business and have accused the council of discriminating against them.

Amir Mossadeph, chairman of the Exeter St David’s Taxi Association, said: “De-restriction would be an absolute disaster and is completely unacceptable because it would destroy whole businesses. The foreign drivers would become like chickens for the slaughterhouse. There is a feeling of discrimination.”

The council said any suggestion that the policy would be prejudiced against foreign drivers was “misguided”.

The association has urged the council to maintain the current policy of taxi restriction, and has offered to fund the commission of a customer survey into unmet demand.

It claims a council report published last July in support of de-restriction contained ‘gross factual inaccuracies and omissions’.

But the council denied the claim, saying it had “firmly rebuffed” a number of written correspondences to that affect.

Hassan Al-Seaidy, 58, who owns two Hackney license plates in Exeter, said: “The whole community is very worried. Many taxi drivers came here with nothing. They worked in chicken factories to save money to buy a license plate. Now they are worried their investment will be worthless.”

He added: “This is an example of dictatorship by the council. The council is being vindicative and not listening to us. We believe this motion is politically motivated and is against us.”

A taxi and private hire services report published by the Law Commission in May 2014 identified a number of arguments against removing quantity controls.

These included traffic congestion, noise and air pollution, reduced driver income, licensees unable to afford to maintain safety standards, and a taxi rank ‘free-for-all’.

The report concluded quantity restrictions could play a ‘positive role’ within the taxi licensing framework, and said there was a ‘lack of empirical’ evidence of the benefits of de-restriction.

It added that evidence from a consultation suggested removing restrictions would not bring ‘significant consumer benefit’.

In a letter to the city council, Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw said he had “serious concerns” about the possibility of de-restriction following his own research into the matter.

The licensing committee will consider the proposals at a meeting on February 3.

They will also discuss a related bid to impose higher quality criteria on city taxis including a distinctive colour scheme, in-cab CCTV, improved wheelchair access and lower emission vehicles.

If the plans are accepted, any applicant who meets the ‘enhanced’ standards will be able to obtain a hackney carriage license.

A council spokesman added: “Officers feel that higher quality criteria would prevent the increase in numbers and lowering of standards seen elsewhere when de-restriction has taken place in an unmanaged way.”

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