migrants get free taxi,s to court the AA grumpy column

[the grumps]

i just had to copy and paste this you just couldnt make it up

THOUSANDS of pounds are being spent on free taxi rides to legal hearings for immigrants.

The five-mile trip from a railway station to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal Centre in Newport, Gwent, costs £1.80 on a bus.

But instead, around £2,500 a month is handed by the taxpayer-funded Tribunals Service to a private taxi firm for a minibus shuttle service.

Critics branded it yet another example of wasteful Britain.

One insider at Columbus House - where applications to become British citizens are heard - said: "Why can't these people be given the number of the bus service they have to catch outside the station.

"If I was going to court, they wouldn't give me a free cab, so why should they get it?

"Places in Newport are shutting down and people are struggling to get by - yet here's a Government department spending a stupid amount on this free service. People deserve to know what is going on." A spokeswoman for the Tribunals Service admitted Newport was the only one of its nine centres to provide taxis.

She said: "The service is provided for appellants as part of the conditions imposed by the local authority when planning permission was granted for the centre." She added they do not pay for the train fares.

AAG

i,d pay for a taxi ONE WAY TO THE AIRPORT !!!!!

this is your neck of the woods spot any comments ??