All taxis in Brighton could soon be fitted with safety screens after a series of savage attacks on drivers.

Brighton and Hove Council will be recommended to approve the screens, along with in-car closed-circuit TV cameras.

A handful of private hire drivers had resisted the move, fearing it would hamper the personal relationships built up with customers.

But recent assaults have added momentum to the campaign for better protection.

They include a driver who was slashed with a knife across his throat by a passenger who took his cash.

The wound came within a centimetre of a major artery. Five months later, the cabbie remains off work and may not return.

Another driver was hit on the head last month with an iron bar. He had stitches.

At about the same time, a third cabbie was hit on the head with a wheelbrace by a passenger who escaped with £70. He also needed hospital treatment.

Not all the victims have been men. A woman driver was grabbed around the throat by a male passenger during a journey, but she managed to release herself without injury.

Council environment director Alan McCarthy said: "Any incident in which a driver is threatened, assaulted or robbed is an occurrence too many."

The cab trade has asked for metal screens to be installed which separate back-seat passengers from the driver.

They would prevent assaults but could be removed by drivers during quiet periods.

The screens have been examined by taxi testers and found to be acceptable. But they will now have to be approved by the council, which is responsible for issuing taxi licences.

It would then be left to individual drivers to decide whether to apply for the grilles.

Closed-circuit TV screens have already been installed in cabs in Exeter, Bournemouth, Poole, Kettering and Oldham.

Four taxis in Brighton and Hove have had them installed on a trial basis and the reaction has been good from drivers and passengers.