Taxi drivers will be brushing up on their motoring skills when a tough new testing system is introduced.

From August, anyone applying for a cab licence in Brighton and Hove may have to take an extra 40-minute test to ensure new drivers give passengers value for money.

Current requirements for hackney carriage and private hire licenses in the city include a criminal records check, a full medical, references, the knowledge test and the routes test.

But new drivers could also be required to pass the additional test from the Driving Standards Agency (DSA).

Existing licensed drivers who accrue more than four penalty points within two years would also be required to take the test.

Brighton taxi driver Brian Ralfe, 60, also the Independent Pink Party's parliamentary candidate for Hove and Portslade, said most drivers are good but anything that gives customers a better service is a good idea.

He said: "A lot of taxi drivers are not courteous enough or helpful enough. Some drivers should also improve the way they are dressed and the state of their cars. After all, we are the first point of contact with the city when visitors arrive at Brighton or Hove stations."

Danny Bunch, 45, of Woodingdean, has been driving taxis in Brighton for 18 years.

He said: "Anything that improves the safety of customers is a bonus. There are a lot of people, not just taxi drivers, who would not pass their driving test now after all the bad habits they have picked up over the years."

Union TGWU Brighton and Hove Taxi Branch supports the proposals for the DSA test.

Branch secretary Mick Hildreth, also manager of City Cabs, said: "We think it will raise standards of drivers.

"A lot of people have got a good standard but standards have slipped a bit over the last few years."

Brighton and Hove City Council's licensing committee is expected to approve the test when it meets tomorrow.

Piloted in Leeds in 1999, the test has since been rolled out to 52 other local authorities including Crawley, Eastbourne and Horsham.

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: "This test will help raise the skill standards of private hire and hackney carriage drivers."