A weekly newspaper in Kent has forced its local council into a World Cup U-turn over the right of taxi drivers to show their support for England.

The Kentish Gazette highlighted cabbies’ fury on the front page after they were banned from flying flags from their vehicles during the forthcoming tournament in South Africa.

Officials from Canterbury City Council told the KM Group title that the ban had been put in place for “health and safety reasons.”

But 36 hours after the Gazette urged them to think again, the council changed its mind, relaxing the rules and allowing cabbies to fly a single flag each.

Editor Leo Whitlock said: “This must be one of the fastest council U-turns in history. You have to give them credit for rapidly coming to their senses.

“As soon as the story appeared on the streets, readers started to email in. We had a host of readers’ letters in the post the following day.

“Our online version started to attract a whole host of comments as soon as it went live and it was the main topic of conversation on our sister radio station kmfm.”

Council licensing chief Roger Vick had earlier said the authority wanted the taxis “to look like taxis” so as to avoid confusing customers.

“During the World Cup there will be lots of cars with flags and stickers driving about, but taxi customers need to know that the vehicle they are getting into is a licensed taxi,” he told the paper.