TAXPAYERS' MONEY SPENT ON YOBS' TAXI RIDES TO COOKING CLASSES

THOUSANDS of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being spent ferrying yobs to cooking classes and art groups.

Juvenile offenders get free taxi rides to a range of activities and treatment programmes.

Critics of the controversial scheme say that at a time when all public spending is coming under scrutiny the money would be better spent helping vulnerable groups such as the elderly.

But Portsmouth City Council, which runs the Preventing Youth Offending Project for eight to 16-year-olds, insists that laying on the free transport represents good value for money.

The project has an account with taxi firm City Wide and has used it each week for eight years, racking up an annual bill of £1,200, costing the city council almost £10,000 since 2002.

The account is also used by victims of domestic violence.

A taxi driver for City Wide, who did not want to be named, said: “I pick these youngsters up quite a lot and take them to their projects. I was surprised when I found out it was an account job paid for by the city council. Using taxpayers’ money on taxis for criminals is a joke. They clearly wouldn’t bother going otherwise.”

The project comes amid concern over the huge taxi bills councils are running up to ferry around various groups. In Northamptonshire, the county council was criticised last month for spending more than £6million on taxis to ferry pupils to school in a single year, mostly for children with special needs.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that £435,239 of this was partly used to take expelled pupils to their new schools.

And in Northern Ireland, the Youth Justice Agency spent nearly £40,000 from 2005 to 2007 on taxis for young offenders aged 10 to 17.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the huge costs raise serious concerns. “Taxpayers will be concerned that the money spent on taxis has shot up so drastically,” he said. “There will be certain cases where it is necessary to use taxis but the authorities need to ensure that they are getting the best value for money in these situations.”

source: The Daily telegraph