Licensed taxis in Windsor and Maidenhead can soon lose their distinctive livery and be any colour following an impassioned plea from cab drivers.

Royal Borough licensing officers had recommended that Hackney Carriages must be white in a proposed update to their current colour scheme. Currently licensed taxis in the borough must all be white with purple bonnets and boots.

But drivers called on councillors to let them choose any colour – arguing that it is harder and more expensive to find only white cars. Speaking on behalf of drivers, Mr Sabir told councillors the issue ‘really means a lot to them’.

He said allowing any colour ‘significantly reduces the cost of buying a vehicle’. Another driver, Mr Yasin, said that the restriction allows car dealerships to hike up the price of white cars, knowing they are in demand from taxi drivers.

He said he recently struggled to find a used car in white. He said: “If I spend £25,000 to buy a car then I spend £1,000 again to change to white, do you think it’s fair?”

Councillor Richard Coe – responsible for licensing – also called on the council’s licensing panel to allow cabs to be any colour. He said he’d recently met the son of a taxi driver whose dad had to travel to the north of England for a car auction just to find a suitable vehicle in white.

He said: “His father had come here from the Indian subcontinent and is a first generation migrant. His hard work behind the wheel means that his children are chartered accountants, one’s hoping to be a doctor and another a teacher.

“Imagine travelling to a BCA in Newcastle to buy a car that you want to buy in white only to discover you’re outbid.”

Councillors on the Royal Borough’s licensing panel were asked to make a decision on Monday, October 14 on the new liveries.

Council licensing officers recommended dropping the purple from the approved livery but insisting that new licensed cabs must stay white, with the borough crest on each front door.

They argued that keeping a distinctive livery and colour would make it harder for people to impersonate licensed taxis.

They said this design ‘is the one most likely to maintain the highest levels of public protection and safety’.

But councillor Coe said there is ‘there is no data to show that having a stronger taxi livery makes taxis safer or reduces the risk of people impersonating a taxi’.

And panel members agreed that keeping logos on the side of cars, a taxi sign on the roof, and the license on the number plate would be enough to identify licensed cabs.

They voted unanimously that cabs could be any colour, but must have the borough’s crest on each front door.

The change will come into effect in February next year for all new drivers and vehicles. Existing drivers will be allowed to keep their current liveries until they renew their license or get a new cab.