SIDNEY WEST laughs at the suggestion that cabbies in Darlington are a miserable lot. "It's nonsense," the 29-year-old says, "talk to any of us and you'll see it's not true."

Mr West is certainly cheerful, despite admitting he doesn't really enjoy his job.

But is his sunny disposition the norm? Not according to a survey of 1,000 people in Darlington, which ranked taxi drivers as the most miserable employees in town.

Cabbies were closely followed in the misery stakes by gas and water officials, with bus drivers placed third.

A quick visit to town centre taxi ranks uncovered a few happy cabbies. Only one wound up his window and refused to say if he was grumpy or not.

Mr West admitted there were a handful of miserable drivers, but said he always made an effort to be nice.

"I'm only grumpy if someone is grumpy with me," he said.

His colleague Michelle Lodge, 25, agreed that some cabbies were less than pleasant. "You can get some like that, but it's just basically when people are drunk and go on all the time," she said. "I try and have a chat with my customers."

"We have to be pleasant," said George Stein, 37. "You can understand if a taxi driver doesn't earn a lot in a day that he might be a bit down in the dumps. But if you are cheerful you are more likely to get a tip."

Anthony Gray, 34, was another smiling example. "I think it's a generalisation which isn't true," he said. "We are not grumpy. The majority are very friendly."

Customers had mixed views on cabbies' temperaments.

Robert Plant, 17, "totally disagreed" with the survey. "Most of the taxi people I see are pretty friendly and talkative," he said.

But Cindy Daniels said: "I don't think they've got much to be grumpy about. All they've got to do is sit in their car and drive."

The survey was carried out for The Royal Bank of Scotland's The One Account by BRMB last month.