Ex-Green councillor claimed expenses for taxi trips A ‘green’ Cambridge councillor claimed expenses for taxis to travel less than a mile for a meeting which oversees the city’s eco agenda.
Cllr Adam Pogonowski, the former leader of the Greens, who represents Abbey, also took several taxis costing up to £24 from his home in Rampton to his place of work in the city.
He has been branded a “hypocrite” by campaigners.
The total taxi bill for Cambridge city councillors from January 6 this year to July 23 was £469.
But the environmental campaigner spent almost half – £221 – of the tab.
He also had the biggest single fare at £24.80 from Peas Hill in Cambridge to his home in King Street, Rampton, on April 12 following a late council meeting while he was the city’s Green group leader.
He defected from the Green to the Labour party in the May elections.
On May 24 he took a taxi from Panton Street to Wheeler Street – a journey of less than a mile which would take three minutes to drive or 11 minutes to walk. It cost £3.80.
Later that day he took another taxi costing £4 from Peas Hill where he had attended the council’s environment scrutiny committee held in the Guildhall at noon, back to Panton Street.
Cllr Pogonowski also took three taxis from his home in Rampton to Brookside, Cambridge, where he works as an economics teacher for Mander Portman Woodward independent college.
The councillor, who has championed cutting carbon emissions in the city and called for better cycling provision, said: “If there is a meeting that is five minutes after a lesson finishes, which was the case with the annual meeting of the council, I cannot fly there to get there in time, so a taxi is needed in order to make it.
“I had only five minutes to get from there to a meeting after a teaching lesson and had to get back to school for a lesson after that.
“It is a far quicker way than walking, and meant I didn’t need to miss the start of the meeting, nor compromise my students’ exam needs, given it was in exam season.
"Taxis home are clearly needed if a meeting ends at midnight, and there are no buses, which also necessitates a taxi in or it would complicate matters afterwards.
“I obviously don’t take taxis around Cambridge unless critical.”
Jonathan Isaby, the political director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “There may be very rare occasions where taking a taxi is an unavoidable necessity.
“But for this one councillor to have racked up a taxi bill nearly equal to that of the other 41 councillors put together suggests that it is hard-pressed council taxpayers who are being taken for a ride.”
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/Ex ... 102012.htm
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