‘GETTING DESPERATE’: Scottish taxi drivers plead for more details on promised support grants

Taxi drivers and operators are ‘getting desperate’ according to cabbies waiting for the Scottish Government to release details of a vital support grant promised to the taxi and private hire industry before the Scottish elections.

Concerned drivers have taken to social media to urge Kate Forbes, Scotland's Cabinet Secretary for Finance, to release information on a future grant promised as part of the SNP’s ‘First Steps’ plan, which details the party’s planned actions over the first 100 days after the elections.

In those plans taxi firms across Scotland were promised grants of up to £10,000 once the SNP were re-elected earlier this month. The SNP also made a promise to taxi drivers that they will be able to claim a second £1,500 payment to assist them through the pandemic.

In the published plan it states the SNP will ‘provide a second payment of £1,500 to each taxi driver who previously received a Covid grant and up to £10,000 for taxi operator firms to help them through these difficult times’.

Since the SNP were voted in earlier this month there has been no further information released or dialogue with trade representatives.

On social media, Leigh McCue said: “ Kate Forbes, drivers and operators are getting desperate now.

“Where/when is the funding you pledged coming forward? Are you communicating with representatives of the trade? And why the disparity STILL between Local Authorities?”

Another poster on social media, a licensed Glasgow taxi operator since 1984, wrote: “Let’s hope that you keep the promise that you made before the election.

“The situation is dire, and expedience is required.

“Any further delay is adding insult to injury to a trade that has been treated appallingly and which has only ever asked for parity with similar businesses.”