CITY councillors will today decide whether to impose a limit on the age of city taxis.

But operators and drivers have reacted angrily to the plan saying it would cause them extreme financial hardship.

A decade ago, the licensing authority adopted an upper age limit for private hire cabs on the grounds of public safety due to the high level of failed inspections for older vehicles but decided not to introduce an the age limit for purpose built taxis.

However a report two years ago said many vehicles licensed as taxis were no longer purpose built, traditional London-style taxis and that maintaining an age policy only for private hire cars may no longer be justified.

It found the MOT failure for taxis was 35% in comparison to the 20% failure for private hires.

Councillors decided to launch a consultation on the upper age limit plan and today will consider the findings.

Almost 500 people responded with the majority saying they did not believe the age of a vehicle was important as long as the vehicle was in good condition, well maintained and passed the twice yearly inspections required through the licensing process and more than half strongly disagreed that an upper age limit should be applied.

New research has found 277 traditional taxis in the city are between 10 and 15-years old, 159 are more than 15-years-old and the remaining 984 between one and nine years old.

The report says: “Analysis of current licensing information shows almost 20% of vehicles currently licensed as taxis in Glasgow are between 10 and 15-years-old with a further 11% being over 15 years old.

“There are currently three vehicles licensed as taxis that are over 21 years old, with the oldest being first registered on October 1,1994

But the Glasgow cab section of the trade union Unite said introducing an age limit would impose extreme financial burdens on taxi operators who may be paying for their vehicle under a hire purchase agreement.

It suggested the same financial argument cannot be made in relation to the existing age policy on private hire cars as the vehicles are less than half the cost of a purpose built vehicle.

A Glasgow Taxis Ltd spokesman said: “Glasgow Taxis Limited is content that Glasgow City Council will have considered all the available information in reaching their decision."