A BID by two cabbies to challenge compulsory cameras in Southampton taxis has been struck out before their case could be heard.

Southampton City Council persuaded a judge that it should go no further as the pair were effectively appealing against a change of policy not a licensing condition requiring the controversial cameras.

But the taxi drivers insisted the council had only won on a legal technicality and vowed to fight on.

The council decided last August that all 263 hail and ride Hackney Carriage taxis and the 450 private hire vehicles in the city must have digital security cameras fitted.

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Clive Johnson, chairman of Radio Taxis, the city’s largest firm, and Kevin May, the city’s largest taxi proprietor, launched a legal action after the council sent a letter confirming the requirement.

They wanted to argue that compulsory cameras breached a driver’s right to privacy under the human rights laws and that the requirement to install the £700 cameras reduced the resale value of their licences.

The Daily Echo reported last week how a taxi driver was trying to sell his vehicle licence, or plate, together with a new seven-seater taxi for £55,000, just weeks after it had been virtually given away in a lottery style council draw.

Mr May and Mr Johnson also claimed the decision to make them compulsory was disproportionate when recordings had only been retrieved from cars about once a month.

But council legal chiefs argued that Southampton Magistrates’ Court could not hear the appeal as it was against a statement detailing a change in policy, rather than the licensing condition requiring a camera be fitted, which only came into play when a new licence was granted or an existing one renewed after one year.

The council admitted that any suggestion in its letter that a taxicam condition had been immediately imposed by councillors was “simply wrong”.

Mr May said: “It was not far off what we expected. But we are not going to stop here. It’s going to continue.

We don’t think it's reasonable to ask 100 per cent of drivers to have these cameras. It infringes human rights.”

Councillor Royston Smith, Cabinet member for community safety, said: “We hope that safety cameras in our taxis have been very successful at preventing crimes from happening.

“We are one of the few authorities in the country to require taxis to be fitted with these cameras and I am pleased that this is still the case.”