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| Blackpools £700,000 taxi bill http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4818 |
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| Author: | JD [ Thu Nov 09, 2006 1:47 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Blackpools £700,000 taxi bill |
Blackpool Gazette HEADLINE: £700,000 town hall taxi bill CALLS were today made for a review of town hall spending after Blackpool Council revealed it shells out £700,000 a year on taxis. The chairman of the authority's watchdog Scrutiny Committee says he is shocked by the "extortionate" bill and wants it explained. Council bosses produced the figure after a request under the Freedom Of Information Act. And they have been quick to defend the outlay saying the majority of the cash is spent by its education and social services departments - mainly to ferry pupils with special needs to schools outside the borough. Three per cent of the budget - around £25,000 a year - covers, among other things, the use of taxis to carry tourism department clients and the delivery of important paperwork to councillors. Tory leader Coun Peter Callow has now called for a detailed breakdown of spending in a bid to cut costs. He said: "As chairman of the scrutiny committee I feel we should be calling for a further investigation into exactly where this money is going and what it is being spent on. "I appreciate there are many necessary journeys to be made, but £700,000 sounds an extortionate amount and I believe it should be looked into in the hope we can reduce it." Taxis are used to ferry children with special needs and their escorts to schools as far afield as Chorley, Wigan, Ormskirk, Warrington, Skelmersdale and Keswick. Coun Callow added: "Obviously it's essential genuine groups of people are not adversely affected. If we look into this there may be ways of providing alternative transport which costs less." The council, which claims £700,000 was typical for an authority of Blackpool's size, says the bill was split: 66 per cent for special needs children; 12 per cent for Social Services; 19 per cent for education and schools while "other services" made up three per cent. A spokeswoman said: "The vast majority of this figure is spent on priority areas, which are special needs children as well as social services and education. "There are a significant number of youngsters and adults with physical and/or mental disabilities that warrant special transport services, including pupils travelling to and from special schools, and sometimes over long distances. "We've recently undertaken a thorough transport review and are now looking at the potential of re-organising passenger transport within the authority. "We're looking, for example, at how we can make our own fleet of transport vehicles more responsive to local needs to achieve... efficiency savings." The spokeswoman added council members' mail was only a tiny proportion of the overall figure. Councillors, including Coun Callow, receive mail deliveries two evenings a week, which include agendas, committee papers and other weighty and important correspondence. The spokeswoman added: "We've negotiated a special deal with a local taxi firm of just £40 per trip, which equates to about £1 per envelope, which offers exceptional value for money. "Previous reviews found that this was far cheaper than using Royal Mail as well as outweighing the cost of employing our own driver out of hours. "A significant reduction has been made in the number of taxi deliveries to councillors - for important and detailed papers - particularly because many members now prefer e-mail where possible." Lancashire County Council, which covers 12 districts, said its taxi bill for children with special education needs was £5m a year. ............................................. |
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