IF Councillor Gary Kibblewhite intended to spark a fiery debate by rounding on Worcester's taxi-driving fraternity, he's achieved his aim.

His complaints, you may remember, initially emerged from either end of a visit to Harrogate last month - an experience which left him with pleasant memories of the Yorkshire conference town, but less satisfied with the Faithful City.

Now, he may have to eat his words, after taking up a challenge from licensed driver Yvonne Carter to drive the city streets and see for himself whether a taximan's lot is or isn't a happy one. We have a suspicion that he may be surprised.

In isolation, the problems and pressures charted by the Evening News over weeks, months and years may seem minor. But see them as a sheaf of cuttings, and a different picture begins to emerge.

Coun Kibblewhite may have to prepare himself for the early hours of a Saturday morning, when CrownGate bus station has closed and the nightclubs have locked their doors.

He must prepare himself to witness the kind of drunken abuse, sometimes racial, which confront few people - beyond the ranks of waiters and bar staff - in their working lives.

He'll join a group who've fought for parking spaces, faced street attacks - and even been told to cut out the designer stubble and shell suits.

He'll see it taken for granted that taxis are expected to be at the door at two in the morning, required to travel from A to B more swiftly than a bus, and do it as serenely as a Parker conveys his Lady Penelope in her Rolls.

Of course, he'll also see drivers playing the ambassador, providing the first or last contact many visitors have with our city.

At the end of his shift, he'll be able to say whether the Harrogate experience set him off on a route he'd rather not, in hindsight, have travelled. We await his report with interest.