TAXI drivers feel "betrayed" by a council vote urging an unlimited number of cabs in Wyre Forest but pubs have welcomed the move as a step towards getting revellers home without delays.

The number of Hackney carriages operating in the district should no longer be restricted to 84, members of a Wyre Forest District Council committee recommended last week - going against a vote by another council committee to keep the cap on numbers.

A final decision has yet to be made by the authority but Bob South, secretary of the Wyre Forest Taxi Drivers' Association, claimed his members felt "betrayed".

He said the move by the environment and economic regeneration policy and scrutiny panel was a "complete reversal" from September's decision by the council's licensing and environmental committee.

Mr South said: "We are obviously gutted. We feel very betrayed.

"We still think that having a number control in the area gives a better service than areas that are de-regulated."

Pubs, however, said there may be benefits with de-regulation, which would free up the number of taxis that did not have to be pre-booked.

Keith Spalding, landlord of The Angel Inn in Load Street, Bewdley, said he frequently witnessed the rush for taxis at the weekend outside his pub, beside Bewdley bridge.

He explained: "I would say at the weekend especially, since the buses have stopped, we definitely need more taxis. It is quite staggering how long people have to wait at weekends."

Sue Etteridge, bar manager at the Swan Hotel in High Street, Stourport, said: "Sometimes we have people waiting up to an hour of taxis and that stops them from going on to Kidderminster to go to a nightclub."

Scrutiny panel chairman, Fran Oborski, said: "The aim is to bring us in line with the Government's demand for de-regulation, which is harder and harder to resist but, at the same time, to prevent an influx of cowboys by insisting on high specification purpose-built vehicles."

The Government is asking the council to de-regulate taxis. The district council would have to prove that regulation was justified with a £10,000 "needs survey", paid for by the taxi trade. The council must make a decision by March 31 next year.