Chauffeur driven limo bill revealed

More details have emerged regarding the cost of Labour and Plaid Cymru’s chauffeur driven limos. During the course of 2008/09 the Labour-Plaid Cymru administration racked up a bill of £216,461 for chauffeur’s wages. When travelling across the country to attend official engagements the AM’s are given the use of a government limo and chauffeur however many are calling for a reduction of this kind of travel.

Opposition leaders are up in arms as the figure shows a significant increase on the previous period of 2007/08 when the total cost of this luxury transport stood at £144,190. This over reliance on chauffeur driven transport for Welsh ministers has lead Welsh Conservative Leader Nick Bourne to speak out. He suggests the AM’s are guilty of hypocrisy as these same ministers have been encouraging the general public to give up their own vehicles and make use of public transport in order to reduce co2 emissions. Mr Bourne summed up his point by saying: “Not only are Labour and Plaid ministers driving more, they’re paying more for the pleasure.”

Another alarming discovery which was uncovered following the release of the recent figures is that, as Mr Bourne said, Ministers are in fact travelling more. In 2008 they clocked up 214,376 miles which shows a 50% increase in the amount travelled the previous year.

In a previous article on Limo Broker News we reported that the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams, had suggested ministers utilise the use of video conferencing in order to reduce the amount of travel required to attend meetings across the country. This is a viable option and one which ministers are considering in order to lower transport costs.

Government spending has come under incredible scrutiny following the MP expense claim scandal revealed in the Telegraph earlier this year. Potentially, government officials may have to wave goodbye to their chauffeur driven limos if they are restore public confidence.