FURIOUS taxi drivers will tonight confront town hall bosses over plans to put an age limit on private hire cabs -- and tell them the taximen's views are being misrepresented.

Leaders of the 400-strong Burnley Private Hire Association say they are strongly opposed to a council plan to place an immediate seven-year age restriction on newly licensed cabs -- and phase out older vehicles that are already licensed over the next two years.

An officer's report to tonight's meeting of the council licensing sub-committee states the association supports the change, and the cabbies say that is simply not true.

Association spokesman Duncan Allan said he was confused and disgusted by the statement and aims to go to the meeting to put the record straight with councillors.

"We are certainly not in favour and made it clear we opposed the proposal when we met town hall officers earlier this month. "How the report to councillors can say we support it is beyond me."

Mr Allan said the report which stated the cabbies backed the age limit had never been sent to the Association which only learned of the statement via the press.

He said the proposed change would add another crippling financial blow to taximen, already hit by higher licensing and test fees and a doubling of insurance charges.

"It is just adding to the burden and will put drivers out of work -- operators simply cannot afford to replace all their cars."

"We are using good quality used vehicles which have to be tested every four months -- they are safe and in good order.

The council should be more concerned with condition of cars rather than their age," he added.

The report to councillors said that 220 of the town's 313 private hire cabs were more than seven years old, a factor which had caused concern among testing station staff.

Vehicle testing statistics for the first six months of this year showed that 40 per cent of vehicles failed tests and their average age was eight to nine years.

Mr Allan said this was often because many drivers went to the test to find if minor repairs needed to be carried out and the vehicles passed the examinations once they were.

Nobody from the council was available to comment on the matter today.