Anger over free taxi ride service for young yobs

Source: Portsmouth.co.uk

Thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ cash is being used to give young tearaways free taxi rides to community projects, The News can reveal.

Portsmouth City Council has an account with taxi firm City Wide, that has been used each week for eight years.

The account is held by The Preventing Youth Offending Project (PYOP), a city council scheme which runs projects for juvenile offenders aged between eight and 16, and for young people identified as being at risk of offending in the future.

The youngsters have been getting free taxis to pick them up and take them to activities including cooking, sport and art groups as well as treatment programmes.

Council leaders say laying on free transport is sometimes the only way to get young people to turn up.

A taxi driver for City Wide, who did not want to be named, said: ‘I pick them up quite a lot and take them to their projects.

‘To be honest I was quite surprised when I found out that it was an account job, paid for by the city council.

‘I just think that using taxpayers’ money on taxis for criminals is a joke. It is just that they wouldn’t bother going otherwise.’

And Muriel Deacon, president of the Portsmouth Pensioners Association, said: ‘Our hard-earned money is being spent on them. Taxis are a luxury that lots of elderly people can’t afford. People who cannot go out on to buses because they are so frail are house-bound, and I am sure that they would like £100 a month to spend on taxis, it is a big expense for them.

‘We have a lot of people who would like to go out and do things but can’t, so this does not seem very fair.’

The 82-year-old added: ‘I can well imagine that these youths wouldn’t get to their groups otherwise and I suppose we should give the city council credit that they are trying to break the cycle of offending in Portsmouth.’

The taxi account, which also caters for victims of domestic violence, has racked up almost £10,000 since 2002, paid for from council funds.

Bruce Marr, project manager for the Preventing Youth Offending Project, defended the use of council funds.

‘One hundred pounds a month is not a great deal and we share the taxis,’ he said. ‘Some £140,000 is needed to fund every young person who goes into custody so we believe supporting youngsters, and preventing this is a good investment for society.

‘For every £1 invested in catching problems early, society benefits between £7.60 and £9.20. It is not written that young people get a taxi – only in certain circumstances.”