Up to 200 taxis could be banned from the roads in the Canterbury district in a radical bid to clean up air pollution.

The city council says it will refuse to re-license vehicles which fail to meet the latest emission standards by August next year as it attempts to push all cabbies into electric cars by 2030.

It would mean many drivers having to make costly upgrades in the next 18 months to protect their livelihoods.

Some concerned cabbies say they cannot afford to simply change their cars so quickly.

Nigel Harris, 64, who has run a traditional-style London taxi in the city for 20 years, says the proposals will force him into retirement.

“I will just have to get rid of it despite the fact that it’s been a fantastic vehicle for the job which flies through its MoT emissions test every time without a problem,” he said.

“The trouble is that a new electric version of one of these, which is made for the job and has wheelchair access, is £60,000 and not many people can afford that.”

The controversial policy comes as the city council attempts to meet its own ambitious target of being carbon-neural by 2030.

The authority says taxis, most of which are diesel, are having a significant detrimental impact on air quality because of the nature of their multiple local journeys.

Now, in a phased approach to the problem, it wants all vehicles it licenses to be hybrid by 2025 and electric by 2030.

It admits it could cause “some pain” for cabbies, who may have to get rid of their cars for taxi work sooner than expected.

But some drivers question the reliability of keeping the electric vehicles adequately charged for their use, despite the council saying it will install reserved new fast-charging points at taxi ranks as part of the policy.

“I live in a terraced house so how I am supposed to charge my car at night?” said one sceptical driver.

But cabbie Vassil Sariev says he is already ahead of the game having bought a Toyota hybrid three years ago.

“It has to happen and I have to say it works very well for me and I have already racked up about 150,000 miles without any problem,” he said.

Controversially, the proposed changes will not apply to Uber drivers at they are not licensed by the city council.

They were discussed at last week’s meeting of the council’s community committee and have now been put out to public consultation.

'These proposals are radical and they might cause some pain but we’ll have to look at that'

Safer Neighbourhoods officer Doug Rattray told the committee that taxis and private hire vehicles had a “disproportionate impact” on air quality, with the worst emissions caused by vehicles manufactured before 2016.

He said 200 licensed cabs in the district currently do not meet the Euro 6 standard.

“We have set a bold ambition to meet climate change targets by 2030 but we believe that by setting out such an ambition, we are more likely to achieve progress,” Mr Rattray said.

“As licensing authority we have to set clean air objectives in all our licensable activities and that will mean some drivers having to get rid of their vehicles by August 2021.”

But he said there would be incentives and cheaper licenses for the greenest vehicles.

The policy was welcomed by Cllr Ashley Clark, (Con) who has recently invested in a hybrid car “to set an example”.

“Action speaks louder than words and we need to get on with it straight away,” he said.

“These proposals are radical and they might cause some pain but we’ll have to look at that.”

Cllr Chris Cornell (Lab) was concerned that the policy should be pursued fairly and by making taxi drivers “the vanguard” of the climate change measures, it must consider their specific concerns.

The consultation will last three months, with the council’s policy and resources committee due to make the final decision in July.

The city council's policy comes amid warnings that cars could be banned from Kent town centres, in order to tackle climate change.

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