Taxi Driver Online

21 Feb 2008

Taxi tokens are blocked as council tax rises by 4.6 per cent

PLANS to reintroduce taxi tokens for the elderly and infirm in South
Gloucestershire were blocked by opposition councillors at a budget
meeting last night.

Labour and Lib Dem councillors voted against the scheme that had been
proposed by the Conservatives, which would have cost taxpayers £1.6
million over the next three years, and used the freed up funds to include a
blend of their own priorities in a compromised budget.

The Lib Dems opted to add almost £300,000 on to a £950,000 youth
transport concession scheme, planned for 2010, and allocate £55,000
towards composting schemes in Thornbury, Hawkesbury Upton and Thornbury.

Lib Dem councillors also took £246,000 from the budget to reinstate the
312 bus service from Thornbury to UWE.

Labour, the minority party in the council, used its hold to secure £38,000
per year for CCTV monitoring in Thornbury and Staple Hill town centres.

The party, with support from Lib Dems, also added £210,000 onto the
£510,000 in the Tory proposed budget for street care initiatives over the
next three years, which will include weekly food waste collections.

But it lost its fight to include £30,000 a year for the provision of night
buses, a result which could have an impact on the already threatened
future of the Yate to Bristol night bus service.

Also in the £171 million budget, £150,000 a year was allocated to employ
five more police community support officers across the authority and
£435,000 a year, rising to £560,000, on improving standards in secondary schools.

The final budget, agreed by all parties, means council tax bills will rise by
4.6 per cent, adding an extra £54.42 a year on the bill of a typical Band D home.

Tory leader Cllr John Calway said: "We are very disappointed for the
14,000 pensioners and disabled residents who were expected to take up
and benefit from the introduction of the choice of taxi tokens.

"But we are pleased so much of our budget was passed and that we will be
able to deliver real service improvements for our residents.

"We managed to secure funding to implement our policies of weekly
foodwaste collections, a flagship youth transport concession scheme, more
than doubling the number of council funded PCSOs, action on litter and
investment in care for the elderly and vulnerable."

Labour leader Cllr Roger Hutchinson said: "I am delighted that several
schemes proposed by Labour have found their way into the final budget.

"These are schemes that will improve our quality of life."

Lib Dem leader Cllr Ruth Davis added: "We believe that providing
£600,000 more per year than the Conservatives towards services that all
members of the community can use is a better use of taxpayers' money
than giving token handouts to individuals."

Source: Gloucestershire Gazette
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I'm surprised they are even debating it our council has used the new national Bus pass as an excuse to stop their scheme i think that most councils will see that there is an opprtunity to save money and exclude taxis from subsidised travel schemes