BBC’s bill for cabs was £1,237… every day!

THE BBC has come under fire for shelling out almost half a million pounds every year on taxis.

The figures, released under freedom of information laws, show that the corporation spent around £1.35million of licence fee-payers’ money on cabs in the three years to April this year.

That equates to £1,237 a day but the figure may be only a fraction of the true cost because fares claimed by those working in ‘journalism, art or literature’ are exempted from disclosure.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Hard-pressed licence fee-payers will be furious that BBC staff are racking up such an extraordinary bill. The rest of the public sector is clamping down on unnecessary taxis and the corporation should be no different.’

A BBC spokesman said much of the money was spent on guests and that staff only used taxis for essential business ‘when public transport isn’t available’.