But it didn't stop a cab driver from charging an 85-year-old grandmother £4 for a 400-yard taxi ride.

The woman, who asked not to be named, was collected by taxi from her home in Elizabeth Gaskell Court and driven to the top of Minshull Street.

"It warms one's heart to know we have such a public spirited taxi service in the town," said the woman's son-in-law George McCaig.

"If the airlines charged a similar tariff between Manchester and New York, the fare would be about £75,000."

But this week taxi firms in the town were quick to defend their prices - as perfectly within their rights.

Private hire taxi companies - where a client telephones direct for a cab - can set their own standard fees.

"We are not metered vehicles," said a spokesman for A&P Taxi Hire.

"We quote a price before we do a job so it is up to the customer to accept a price."

It means standard fees for journeys to anywhere within Knutsford's boundaries range from £3 to £4 as a flat fee irrespective of the metres - or miles - travelled.

"Most people know that is a standard rate in Knutsford anyway," said a driver with Acorn Taxis. The elderly woman was unsure which taxi firm she had rung but claimed that they had not told her at the outset it would cost her £4.

"For an old lady living on £73 a week in sheltered accommodation that sort of price is obviously ridiculous," said Mr McCaig.

"After paying £4 one way she had to stagger the distance back home again."

However, if the woman had walked the short distance from Minshull Street to Canute Square she could have taken a hackney carriage from a taxi rank and returned home at a much better rate - because any metered fare of less than 1,173 yards is £1.50.

But it is only hackney carriages that are governed by Macclesfield Borough Council guidelines on fare prices and have to carry a meter.

For the woman, though, it should be the last time she will have to use a taxi - private or metered - again, if her family can help it.

"It is very rare she would use a taxi anyway as 99% of the time my wife or girls would take her out," said Mr McCaig.