School Taxi Fares Clock Up £11m of Taxpayers' Cash
10th September 2008
More than £11m of taxpayers' money has been spent ferrying Lincolnshire children to school and back in taxis – in just one year.
Most of the bill – which works out at over £32,000 a day – was spent transporting children with special needs to the few specialist schools in the county that can cater for them.
The total of £11,707,962 makes up more than a third of the overall bill for public school transport in Lincolnshire.
And the figures – released under the Freedom of Information Act – highlight the burden the county's size places on transport bills that the taxpayer must fund.
The highest individual taxi fare was £251 and paid for three children and a supervisor to travel on a return journey from Lincoln to Belper in Derbyshire.
Lincolnshire County Council bosses insist that such fares are very rare.
David Robinson, schools services manager at the council, said: "It costs a lot of money, but Lincolnshire is the fourth biggest county and has limited public infrastructure.
"We have a pile of claims for people who want taxis, but I don't give them unless there's an overriding reason to."
Yet not everyone is convinced the bill is justified.
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "The simple fact is that this isn't fair on taxpayers or the children in question – this money is meant to go towards education, not vast taxi fares."
Source; thisislincolnshire.co.uk
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