HERTSMERE will have the fifth most expensive taxi fares in the country if a proposed fare rise is approved by the borough council in the new year.

Hertsmere Borough Council has responded to taxi drivers' concerns about increasing road and car maintenance costs by agreeing to a price rise of almost 12 per cent, which could start from February next year.

Taxi drivers have written to the council to complain that they are one of only seven boroughs in the country not to have had a fare increase since September 2003.
Currently passengers travelling in Hackney Carriages licensed by the council pay a fare of £2 for the first 400m travelled and 20p for each additional 180 meters after that.

However, from February passengers will pay £2.20 for the first 321m and 20p for every 165m after that.

The rise will mean commuters pay £5.80 for the first two miles travelled, leaving the borough as the fifth most expensive place to catch a cab in the country.

Currently Caradon, a district in south east Cornwall is the most expensive place to catch a taxi in the country, followed by Epsom and Ewell and then London.

Watford is currently the eighth most expensive place to catch a cab, while Bolsover, in Derbyshire, is the cheapest, with a two mile fare costing just £2.80.

Taxi drivers point to rising petrol prices, high insurance costs and a lack of taxi ranks in the borough as reasons for the price hike.

Phil Andrews, principal licensing officer for the council, said: "The taxi trade hasn't had an increase since 2003 and it has faced rising costs since that time.

"The council felt that we would let the trade catch up to where it was once and therefore the councillors have approved a rise of about ten per cent."

Taxi drivers had wanted to bring the borough's fares to the same level as cabs in London.

However, while admitting the borough's relatively expensive fares were because of higher costs in the area, Phil Andrews said the council wanted to keep a price difference between Hertsmere and the London boroughs.

"Hertsmere is a district of Hertfordshire and we do border very closely to Metropolitan districts but we don't suffer the traffic problems that they do in London."

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/localnews/