Taxi Driver Online

SNP blasted after running up £136K taxi bill

SNP ministers have run up a £136,000 taxi bill - despite having access to a fleet of chauffeur-driven official cars. The cost - revealed in a parliamentary answer - was branded a "waste of public money" by Labour yesterday.

But the SNP government hit back, pointing out they had actually cut the cost of taxis in the last year. Figures confirmed by finance secretary John Swinney showed £88,493 was spent on private hire cars for ministerial travel between May 2007 and April last year. They spent £47,836 the following year.

Labour MP for Ochil Gordon Banks said: "These taxi trips are a waste of public money. They really need to explain why they are spending so much on this." But the previous Labour and Lib Dem administration spent £72,705 on taxis for ministers in their final year in office.

A Scottish government spokesman said: "The figures show a dramatic fall in the number and cost of private hire car journeys in 2008-9 compared with the last year of the previous administration, as well as the previous year."

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IDFIMH

Looks like this lot either dont know there's a difference between Private Hire Vehicles and Taxis...or they do indeed know theres a difference and and are just choosing the Word Taxi to divert from Private Hire costs and then using the word Private Hire to divert from their Taxi costs...Sleekit as always. are they really saying that in one year they used only PH vehicles , and the next year only Taxis??

These guys and gals could win the Worlds twister championship without breaking into sweat as they are so twisted anyway.