BOLTON taxi cabs are still CCTV-free, more than a month after the council gave the go-ahead for cameras to be installed.

The council's licensing panel unanimously backed drivers' urgent pleas to allow filming in taxis to protect them from a rising tide of attacks.

Cab drivers pointed to a series of violent incidents, most alarmingly in December 1997 when driver Quadir Hussain was knocked down and killed as he tried to flee a passenger who was assaulting him.

But five weeks after the decision, not a single camera has been fitted.

Councillors insisted on a series of conditions to ensure nothing filmed in a cab could be used for voyeuristic purposes.

But so far no providers of CCTV equipment have been able to convince the council that their systems have the required safeguards.

Charles Oakes, secretary of Bolton's Hackney Carriage Association, voiced his worry at the delay in the cameras' arrival.

He said: "I'm concerned that it's a month since that meeting but we have had no approaches from the authority.

"There was a further incident at the weekend when a driver had his side window smashed and it's important that we go ahead and do something to try to protect them.

Council licensing officer Andrew Fisher said: "We've had negotiations with a couple of manufacturers but neither of them have got back to us and there have been no applications from taxi drivers to install CCTV. It's all gone very quiet."

Mr Oakes added that Bolton cabbies were keen to find less expensive alternatives to the £300 to £500 camera systems which have been offered by larger manufacturers.

The decision whether to install CCTV will rest with individual drivers, but under council conditions signs must be displayed prominently where it is operating.