Taxi companies in Brighton and Hove plan to slap a £1 charge on every booking made over the telephone.

The fee is set to be agreed at a Brighton and Hove City Council meeting next week.

At the moment, if customers order a taxi on the phone a fee of 20p is added to the final bill. But the taxi trade wants that fee increased by 500 per cent to £1.

Taxi drivers also seek other extra charges, including 60p for late night journeys, 60p for Sunday hirings, 80p for bank holiday trips and doubled charges during Christmas and New Year.

There could also be an extra charge of 60p for each person above four in a cab and a charge of £50 for fouling a vehicle.

Environment director Alan McCarthy said the telephone charge would only apply to phone bookings and not to cabs from ranks.

He said: "It is an incentive to drivers to make themselves available at peak times, especially at night, and so improve the service."

However, one anonymous taxi driver, who said he represented the silent majority, said he was "disgusted" by the new tariff.

He said: "Over a two-mile distance, we will become the dearest taxis in the country, nearly 20 per cent more than London.

"When a little old dear, or the sick, or the disabled, who cannot make it to one of our ranks, rings for a taxi, they will have to pay £1 on top of the fare."

He said he could not reveal his identity because other taxi drivers might make it "uncomfortable" for him.

The driver said: "As I have only a few years left before I retire, I'm after an easy life but I draw the line on vastly overcharging my customers."

A private hire driver, who gave his name as Dave, said: "This will put us out of business. It is an attempt by the hackney drivers to get people to walk round to their ranks.

"There is no way old dears are going to pay the £1 booking charge and we will not be charging it."

But cabbie Kuaerner Gorecki said: "The 20p booking charge has never been charged and the £1 never will be.

"We are not ripping people off and it is not true that we charge more than London taxis."

Council leader Ken Bodfish said: "Fares should be fair. I am unhappy about this proposed increase. There is a case for a booking fee but it should not be £1."

The last fare increase was approved by the council in September 2000.

If the new application is approved, the basic fare in the city will be £1.80 a mile.

The minimum fare, which registers on the clock the moment a passenger steps in, will remain unchanged at £2.20. However, cabbies can only impose one of the extra charges on each journey.

If the rises are approved on Tuesday they will have to be advertised to allow for objections to be voiced.