THE impact of York’s taxi fleet on pollution and air quality in the city could be about to come under the spotlight.

A City of York Council task group will this week decide whether to launch an analysis of the emissions the vehicles produce.

It could also consider how much greener York’s taxis would be if some of the cars currently being used were replaced with more environmentally friendly alternatives, although the time it would take to complete such a study may be a stumbling block.

The issue will be discussed on Thursday by the council’s taxi licensing review task group, which is also looking at issues such as whether York has enough taxis and ranks, following a request by Conservative group leader Ian Gillies for existing polices to come under fresh scrutiny.

“Air quality is an issue which affects all cities and towns across the country,” said a report by scrutiny officers, which will go before the meeting. “It is recognised that while everybody needs to play their part, those who contribute more to the problem, such as buses, taxis and vans, should be expected to do more to provide the solution,”

“To undertake a detailed study of taxi emissions in York, officers would ideally need to know, as a minimum, vehicles ages and fuel types and have an estimation of mileage over a set period. Unfortunately, very little information is currently held electronically about hackney carriages and private hire vehicles in York.”

The report said one option would be to compile of a list of registration plates from which data used to estimate emission levels could be gleaned, but this would cost about £1,850, while getting a picture of average mileages may prove “difficult and inaccurate”.

Officers also said a quicker, but less accurate, alternative might be to make some “broad assumptions” about emissions from York’s current taxis, before working out how the situation would change if electric or hybrid vehicles were operating instead.