Taxi Driver Online

August 16, 2007 Thursday

Coventry Evening Telegraph

Councils' taxi bills are pounds 15,000 a day;

Council chiefs are looking again at using cabs for transporting at risk children and adults

COUNCIL tax payers in Coventry and Warwickshire are forking out a staggering pounds 5.5million a year in taxi fares.

That's an incredible pounds 15,000 a day.

The Telegraph can reveal that Coventry City Council spent more than pounds 1.5million on taxis in the past year and Warwickshire County Council paid out almost pounds 4million.

In Coventry, in the last financial year the council spent pounds 1,435,000 on taxis transporting children. Of that, pounds 770,000 went on getting children with special needs to and from school.

A further pounds 665,000 was spent transporting other children who are classed as at risk of being taken into care because of a breakdown in their families.

Last year, the council also spent pounds 92,000 on taxis for adults and older people receiving social care.

And there was also a case of a taxi being used to transport an asylum seeker, although the circumstances of that journey have not been revealed.

Staff also claimed a total of pounds 26,000 in expenses for taxis between 2006 and 2007.

Warwickshire County Council spent a total of pounds 3,948,762 on taxi journeys between 2006 and 2007.

Some pounds 3.4million was spent on children with special needs and a total of pounds 542,707 was spent taking children who live in the more remote and rural parts of the county, to either school or to the nearest bus stop.

The total bill is expected to rise to more than pounds 4.2million this year.

COVENTRY CITY COUNCIL

Expenditure on taxis in the last financial year

Total amount spent: pounds 1,555,000

Amount spent on transporting children with special needs: pounds 770,000

Amount spent on transporting all other children: pounds 665,000

Amount spent by Community Services: pounds 95,000

Amount spent by Finance and ICT: pounds 2,000

Amount spent by City Services: pounds 2,000

All other departments: pounds 2,000

WARWICKSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Expenditure on taxis in the last financial year

Total amount spent: more than pounds 3.9m

Amount spent on transporting children with special needs: pounds 3,363,995

Amount spent on transporting all other children: pounds 597,947

Total amount spent by staff in all other departments: pounds 4,820
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And all of that is money well spent.

Perhaps they want to hire a bus to take a kid to a social service meeting, or a supervised meeting with an entranged parent.

Or maybe they want to herd special needs kids on buses to and from school, I'm quite sure they parents wouldn't mind them being picked up at 5.00am in the morning for them to do the rounds for a 9.00am start.

I mean those kids wont mind will they? Nor will the school when the kids freak out when they arrive at school? And of course those kids can hold their bladders for hours on end.

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IDFIMH

Sometimes it does seem strange though. I have just received 2 contracts to take 2 pupils to the same school at the same time but they have to go in seperate cars.
Last year we took 2 girls to the same place in one car but they then started to go to a different place but they then had to go in seperate cars???????? These girls lived next door to each other. I am sure that there are good reasons for the way these things are done but I can't fathom it. Still more work for me.
Iread a report in a paper earlier this year that stated that the kids that have been excluded from mainstream education have to be provided with transport to the special units because if they are not given the oportunity of an education they can sue the LA. The cost to the LA to defend one of these claims is about £100,000 so it is cheaper to just pay for the transport.

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Grandad,

I well believe it. Social work up here spend a fortune on cabs

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Middlesbrough have made public their Taxi school runs.

http://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/ccm/cms ... id=1783117

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

Around here the council only uses the cheapest bidder when they hand out contracts, and some of the company's are so desperate to get them they cut there own throats

An interesting way to do it, but in most areas the firms take bulk amounts of work, and pass it on to the drivers.

But it would be interesting to see school runs listed that way, just to see how much the firms are creaming off the top.

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IDFIMH