Council spends £1.8m a year on taxis

More than £1.8m is spent by Nottinghamshire County Council on taxis every year, figures have revealed.

Following a Freedom of Information request, the shocking statistics show that the cash spent on adults using the public transport equates to more than £5,142 per day.

It was found that the majority of taxi journeys were requested by the adult social care team, and commissioned by the council’s transport team.

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In response, Jon Wilson from Nottinghamshire County Council’s adult social care and health department said: “The county council organises transport for adult service users who are eligible for travel assistance from the authority to enable them to access key services such as day services or respite care.

“The council’s own passenger fleet of 51 vehicles is used to make many of these journeys along with contract coaches for large groups of day service users.

“In some cases buses are not the most cost effective or suitable method of transport, particularly when only one service users requires transport to a particular service or their disability means specialist transport such as a wheelchair accessible taxi needs to be organised.”