Members of Eastbourne Borough Council's licensing committee say they made the decision to revise the format of the fare tariff card purely in the public interest and a new tariff card will make it easier for the public to understand and stop unscrupulous drivers charging for unnecessary extras.

The new tariff card will see an increase in general rates and all the extras that drivers can charge for peak and off peak journeys and luggage will be removed.

But drivers are furious and say councillors have chosen the least supported option out of three presented to them.

They fear the new fare tariff will penalise the town's taxi travelling public because a single passenger will pay the same amount as three or four people travelling with luggage.

The drivers also say they will receive no incentives for working Sundays or Bank Holidays and that could lead to a shortage of vehicles available on the roads of Eastbourne.

The drivers had called for the councillors to explore other options but this week councillors stood by their decision and insisted they had made the right decision and upheld the public interest.

Councillor Susan Morris, the chair of the committee, said, "The committee felt it has a duty to the travelling public to make the fare tariff structure easy to understand since in most cases the public are only interested in the final fare to be paid.

"This is often difficult to establish under the current fare tariff structure."

Cllr Morris said the committee met to consider three proposals submitted by the taxi trade and considered a range of options submitted by the trade in respect of the fare structure and the level of fares to be charged.

It also heard representations from various members of the trade including the Eastbourne Hackney Carriage Association, independent taxi drivers, members of Eastbourne and Country Taxis and a meter installer regarding the technical capacity of Hackney carriage meters and the constraints of coping with a complex tariff structure.

Cllr Morris said, "The council has requested for a number of years that any future proposals lodged by the trade should seek to simplify the current tariff to aid understanding and thereby assist the travelling public.

"It was evident to the committee that unanimous agreement amongst the taxi trade regarding any change in the fare tariff was unable to be reached, despite repeated attempts by the council and the trade in previous years to achieve this.

"The committee duly considered all submissions made to them deliberating for some two-and-a-half hours on the matter and agreed a simplified fare tariff minus the extras system would be easier for the travelling public to understand and the majority of members supported this approach.

"In order to ensure that the new simplified tariff structure is set at the right level, the council is consulting further with the taxi trade to determine the level of fares they feel is appropriate for each rate, based on the removal of the extras system."

The council has given drivers eight weeks to work together to come up with a new tariff card.