The sting is in the tail with this one
Councillor under fire for job with Network taxi firm
Exclusive: Paul Hutcheon
29 Aug 2010
A senior Labour councillor in Glasgow is under fire over his employment by a taxi firm that police claim has criminal links.
Baillie Jim Todd who chairs the controversial City Building organisation, one of Glasgow City Council’s arms-length companies, is a driver for Network Private Hire.
The SNP group on Glasgow City Council is to table a motion on Monday that could block the firm from winning any contracts from the local authority.
Network, based in the Springburn area of the city, is in the middle of a long-running war of words with Strathclyde Police.
Although the firm last year secured a £2 million taxi contract with NHS Greater Glasgow, the deal was nearly scuppered when the police force urged the health board to pull out of the contract.
Network was then denied an operator’s license by the council in April after police argued that a convicted criminal was profiting from the firm.
Police said former shareholder James Baxter was still receiving £5000 a week as a result of being bought out.
The company continues to trade pending an appeal. Network denies any links to organised crime.
The Sunday Herald can now reveal the links between Network and Todd, who is a well-placed Labour councillor in Glasgow’s corridors of power.
The Network taxi driver is a member of council committees on children and families, health and social care, personnel appeals and public processions.
More importantly, he was recently installed as chair of City Building, the arms-length firm set up by disgraced former council leader Steven Purcell. City Building has been at the centre of rows over alleged cronyism in contracts and spending that benefited the Labour Party.
Todd did not respond to this newspaper’s questions about his work for the taxi firm, but a Network spokesman said: “Councillor Jim Todd works as a taxi driver with one of the most honest firms in Greater Glasgow. We are perplexed as to why anyone would want to question this, unless they are pursuing a specific agenda.”
However, SNP MSP Bob Doris said: “Councillors need to set an example to constituents. I suspect working for Network Private Hire, given the serious concerns the police have, is not the best way to do this.
“This Labour council needs to get its act together quickly.”
In another development, SNP councillors will tomorrow attempt to stop a number of taxi firms from securing work with the council.
The SNP motion urges the council “not to award any transport contracts to companies without an operator’s license and to review any contracts already awarded to such companies”.
It was revealed recently that the council, in a cost-cutting bid, had switched its school run business to Network and other private-hire operators.
David Meikle, a Tory councillor in Glasgow, said: “We already needed a full debate on the decision by the Labour-run council to increase its work for Network Private Hire, but the revelation that the taxi firm employs a Labour councillor means it is vital we get answers on the links between the party and this company.”
A Network spokesman said: “Network Cars welcomes any initiative designed to target crime of any sort. We hope that this information-sharing protocol will target both independent firms and those hackneys involved in the illegal black market in licence plates which, as everyone knows, is a magnet for money-laundering."
