Taxi Driver Online

A £1,000 taxi ride to deny a teenager her right to speak
A 16-year-old girl was driven 300 miles to a court hearing where she was not allowed to speak

7:00PM BST 20 Aug 2011

Even in these stringent times, it seems our social services will spare no expense in pursuing their idea of justice.

Having placed a 15-year-old girl in foster care 100 miles from home, one council’s social workers needed the renewal of a care order – strongly opposed as uncalled for both by the parents and the girl herself. A taxi was sent from Aberystwyth to pick the girl up in Manchester, drive her to court in Swansea, at the other end of Wales, and then back to Manchester. The cost was £1,000 – in addition to which the council insisted on paying a “chaperone” to sit by the driver on the journey.

When the girl arrived in court to explain to the judge why she wished to return home, she was not allowed to speak, although she is nearly 16.

Article 10 of the Human Rights Act guarantees everyone “the right to freedom of expression”, and more specifically Article 12 of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of Children says that children old enough to understand the nature of a court must have the right to take part and be heard in proceedings which concern them.

So why was it necessary to spend more than £1,000 of taxpayers’ money to drive an unhappy girl 300 miles, just to be told that she was to be denied rights which, if she were a criminal asylum seeker, the court would have been only too anxious to uphold?

Source; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/colu ... speak.html

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Please....where can I find someone stupid enough to pay me £1000 for a 300 mile Journey..

£3.33 per miles a pretty good rate.

Aberystwyth by the looks of it.

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Grandad,

Wasn't the cost of the escort factored into the price?

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A bit misleading as althought the loaded mileage was 300 miles the cab had a total mileage of 600 miles. It had to go from Wales to Manchester to pick up, then back to Wales, then back to Manc and finally back to Wales once again. Add on the mileage to pick up the chaperone and drop them off again, plus the waiting time sat at court and you could probably see how it cost £1000.

If they'd used common sense and used a Manchester cab only going to Wales and back the cost would have been halved, I'm guessing the chaperone had to be taken from wales initially, which would mean the girl travelled 300 miles but the chaperone (and cab) did 600.

It's very likely that the Chaperone's Payment included in that £1,000.00

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Don't dream it ~ Be it.

The report said that the chaperone was in addition to the taxi cost.

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Grandad,

Can't see it being more than a £100 anyway.

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IDFIMH

On a similar theme.

I was talking to another driver a while back and he was telling me he used to do a daily school run from Southport to somewhere in Liverpool in the morning and in the afternoon picked the kid up. The kid was picked up from a kids home, also picked up from the same kids home was another kid who went to the same school, he was picked up in a different taxi from the same firm because the two kids didn't like each other.

We used to transport 2 girls who lived next door to each other and they were best friends. They both went to the same establishment but again it was 2 seperate cars. £73.00 per day each. We also took another kid to the same school in yet another car. Happy days.

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Grandad,

There's a retired guy round here got a cheap secondhand WAV and ops licence specifically to do one job. Picks kid up in the morning to go to a special school and back at the end of the day, £150 per day !

Doesn't do anything else, doesn't have to, vehicles parked outside his house all day. Mind you for £750 a week for 3 hours a day I'd probably do the same.

No-one else can get a look-in as the job requires a bus with tail loading lift to get the wheelchair in, he's the only one in the area with one.

sasha ~ Bully for him! He had the nouse to see the gap in the market and filled it.

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Don't dream it ~ Be it.

No-ones criticising him as no-one else wants the job ! Should mention that the vehicle he uses is purpose built and has no seats in the back - just room for the (very large) wheelchair, so he can't really use it for anything else. Once the contract ends he has no other work unless the vehicle is re-converted, which means removal of the tailift as the LA wont allow it for general PH/HC work. The LA actually made an exception to allow it to be licensed on the condition it was not used for anything other than that specific job. It suits him as once the contract ends he's going to fully retire.

sasha ~ It was your final sentence that suggested my response.

If he is lucky, he may find that there is other business to be had, here in Ayr, there are several wheelchair users that don't like the Taxi Ramps and might easily be interested in his services.

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Don't dream it ~ Be it.