TAXI drivers are one step closer to winning a campaign to use bus-only lanes - after councillors backed calls for a review of the rules.

Cabbies want to use restricted roads such as Lancaster's Spring Garden Street and Parliament Street to cut through congestion and speed up journeys for passengers.

Mal Spence, of Lancaster City Hackney Proprietors Association, urged the council to change its stance on the bus-only rules at a meeting last Thursday.

Current regulations ban all vehicles other than buses and bicycles from using the roads at all times.

But amid concerns about road safety issues, community services review board members agreed to push for a review of the effectiveness of bus-only lanes and access restrictions.

They also backed a proposal to allow cabs access to some or all of the 'bus lanes'.

Their recommendations will go to Cabinet - but any decision to change traffic orders has to be agreed by county council.

Mal said this week he was 'ecstatic' at getting this far, explaining that the city council's support was vital.

"I am absolutely delighted," he told the Citizen. "After nine years of trying, and spending £1,585 on legal costs to see what our position was, it comes down to the city council.

"The prime benefit is to the public as we could give a better service. We are public transport, and if people choose to travel by taxi they should be able to without being penalised. It helps us keep the costs down because they will be shorter routes."

He said cabbies had been accused of being driven by greed, but stressed: "There are 375 authorities with only 23 in the country charging less than us."