Council's school taxi costs rise to more than £6m

Highland Council is spending £4.6m more on school taxis than it did about five years ago, despite a reduction in pupils provided with transport.

Freedom of Information (FOI) figures show that it supported 1,192 children with taxis to and from school on a daily basis at a cost of more than £6m in 2024-25.

This was down from 1,596 pupils in 2018-2019 when it cost £1.8m to provide taxis.

The local authority said a combination of factors were behind the increased costs, but added that it was exploring various solutions to reduce its bill.

Highland Council said in some remote parts of its region taxis were more cost-effective than using a bus for picking up small numbers of pupils.

But it said that when most of its taxi contracts were renewed in 2022 or 2023 there were "significant" increases in prices due to "rising industry costs".

It said it was working with communities to find other solutions to school transport.

A Highland Council spokesperson said: "While traditional bus services have become less frequent in some areas, the communities haven't stood still.

"Local residents, community councils and with the support of the Highland Council have come together to support innovative transport solutions that better fit local needs."

In Applecross in Wester Ross, Highland Council has provided funding to a local community company to run school transport.

Two nine-seater vehicles have been leased for school runs, and they are also available to the wider community for use.

The scheme has been running for about eight months.

Megan MacInnes, of Applecross Community Company, said: "This is a very sparsely populated rural area.

"We have about 250 people living on a peninsula of 26,000 hectares.

"Like many parts of Highland region we struggle for infrastructure, particularly public transport."

Dougie Maguire, a lead officer for the passenger sector with the Unite union, said hiring taxis in low density areas of the Highlands was likely to be more cost effective than asking a large bus firm to pick up two or three children.

He added: "Highland Council isn't that much different from other areas where councils do have multiple taxi companies and some minibus providers as well.

"But there will be more of that in the area (Highland) because of the size and geography."