A DECISION on allowing taxi drivers to use Worcester's bus lanes has been delayed until 2017, with a former city mayor calling the wait "outrageous".

Worcestershire County Council says it needs more time to examine the implications of allowing cabbies to use bus-only routes in a congestion-busting move.

But the leadership says it will be spring next year before anything comes forward, warning that "significant" investment will be needed to ever get it off the ground.

In July last year we revealed how bosses at County Hall were considering the idea, but later they said it would be 2016 until anything happened.

Councillor Marcus Hart, who took over from John Smith as cabinet member for highways in the summer, now says extra time is needed to look into it.

The main reason for the delay is because a major blueprint for dealing with Worcestershire's traffic, the Local Transport Plan, is currently being refreshed.

Labour Councillor Paul Denham, who first raised it, has called the wait "outrageous".

In November last year the Conservative leadership said it was aiming to publish some findings in "early" 2016.

Councillor Hart said: "We have indicated that we are refreshing our Local Transport Plan, and it won't happen overnight.

"While there are some opportunities to extend the current use of bus lanes, it isn't just as simple as altering a few signs.

"Significant investment is required in either monitoring equipment, control misuse to ensure compliance, and in fitting transponders to vehicles to ensure they are linked with traffic signals and give priority to vehicles using bus lanes.

"There is also, of course the issue of the negative affects this may have on the current Air Quality Action zones in the city."

Speaking during a full council meeting, he added that the council was giving "wider consideration" to allowing motorbikes to use bus lanes too, but urged patience.

Councillor Denham said: "I've got a large number of taxi drivers who happen to live in my division - they wonder why they are being treated as second class tax drivers compared to the rest of the county and most of the country.

"I think it's absolutely outrageous that it's taking the best part of two years for a simple investigation into the possibility of doing what other places are already doing."

Councillor Hart rejected the suggestion taxi drivers were being treated as 'second class' cabbies and called the transport blueprint a "huge piece of work".

"This isn't a simple issue," he said.

The suggestion to open up Worcester's bus lanes followed growing concern about congestion at peak periods.

Cities like Oxford, Reading, Birmingham, London and Bristol already do so, as does Redditch - but Worcester has no such bylaw in place.