Maybe someone should buy the useless lazy b*ggers a bike
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| Author: | captain cab [ Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:50 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Lucky Edinburgh Cabbies |
Civil servants take 4600 taxi rides of less than a mile in a single year SCOTTISH civil servants made more than 4600 taxi journeys of less than a mile last year, newly released figures have revealed. Short trips between St Andrew's House and both the Scottish Parliament and the First Minister's official residence, Bute House, are being blamed for much of the expense. MSPs today called for officials travelling such short distances to walk wherever possible rather than jumping in a cab. Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show a total of 35,023 journeys by Scottish Government staff using contract taxis in 2007-8, at a cost of £323,322. That's down slightly on 36,461 journeys and a cost of £335,847 the previous year. But concerns have been raised that in both years, around one in six of the taxi trips racked up at public expense was for a distance of less than a mile. There were 4631 such trips in 2007-8 and 4691 the previous year. Lothians Labour MSP George Foulkes said: "I bet a lot of them are between St Andrew's House and the Scottish Parliament." He branded the level of taxi use by civil servants "excessive and unnecessary". He said: "People should be walking. The Scottish Government has a big publicity campaign to encourage people to walk. It appears the civil servants are not watching their own publicity campaign. "Edinburgh has one of the best bus services in Britain. They should be using that if they are not able to walk." The figures show similar levels of taxi use under the current SNP Government and the previous Labour-Liberal Democrat administration. Mr Foulkes said: "I don't think it's a political issue. These decisions are made by civil servants. It's John Elvidge, the Permanent Secretary, who ought to be making it clear to his staff that they should walk short distances and take buses wherever possible." Lothians Tory MSP Gavin Brown said as well as saving money, civil servants might be quicker if they walked rather than taking taxis on short journeys. He said: "You could walk a mile in about 15 minutes. With traffic being what it is in some parts of the city, it must be pretty close in time to driving. "If officials have lots of files and bags to carry, no doubt there are times when it is appropriate to take a taxi, but for journeys under a mile, wherever it is feasible, people ought to be walking. "It saves the Government money, it's better for your carbon footprint and probably just as fast." A Government spokesman said: "We do encourage staff to use public transport whenever they can and we recently launched an internal campaign encouraging them to use public transport or taxi share. "But on occasion staff will have to get to places at very short notice, even places nearby, or may be carrying papers or documentation, and sometimes taxis are the only way." |
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| Author: | gusmac [ Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:11 pm ] |
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Maybe someone should buy the useless lazy b*ggers a bike
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| Author: | stu [ Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:36 pm ] |
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So the Taxpayer has to pay civil servants half an hours wages for walking around instead! To be honest in view of their record and the current situation in this country who even listens to any of these clowns now?Don't wait for comic relief get your red noses on now. In comparison to the money taxis and drivers give to the government we get next to nothing back, anyone ever worked out how much they make from the Taxi trade in Edinburgh, I'm afraid Hayek and his road to serfdom is just as accurate as George Orwells 1984. Pity they hadn't been so concerned about taxpayers money when they forced the tram onto the people of Edinburgh, £500+ million to put the number 22 bus on tracks. |
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| Author: | bloodnock [ Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:12 am ] |
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Its an Irony...we have two lots of Politicians in scotland..MPs and SMPs...and we have to pay for both lots and the only ones that have real power are in westminster whilst we get Lumbered by a bunch of Holyrood clowns that couldnt organise a P*ss up in a brewery. I think its time we Dumped the scottish Parliament as its a Needless burden on every Man, woman and child in Scotland....and Indeed the UK. |
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| Author: | cabby john [ Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:46 pm ] |
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bloodnock wrote: Its an Irony...we have two lots of Politicians in scotland..MPs and SMPs...and we have to pay for both lots and the only ones that have real power are in westminster whilst we get Lumbered by a bunch of Holyrood clowns that couldnt organise a P*ss up in a brewery. I think its time we Dumped the scottish Parliament as its a Needless burden on every Man, woman and child in Scotland....and Indeed the UK.
We have the same down here. It was never ever anything more than a form of appeasement in just to shut up the MPs who would make life difficult for those in Westminster - JOBS for the BOYS and the Tax payer will pay for it.
I once picked up an Inglunder who asked what it was like with our own new Assembly and powers! and as I said I am under no illusion as to where the power lays - because with practically every thing that we need we have to put our hands up like naughty boys - JOBS for the BOYS. |
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