Bristol City Council spent more than half a million pounds of taxpayers' money on taxi fares in the past year.

Between April 1, 2007 and March 31, the authority spent £556,961 on taxis and mini cabs. But the council claims most of this was spent to ferry about vulnerable people and not members of staff.

Of the total, the council says £508,392 was spent on providing transport for the public while the remaining £48,569 was for staff.

With 261 working days in a year, that is the equivalent of the authority spending £186 a day on cab fares for staff alone.

If you include the whole £556,961, that is £2,133 every day on private transport.

The largest area of expenditure was children and young people's services, which spent £254,682 in 12 months.

This was to transport children in care, and other families and children in need, to and from school, assessment or care facilities, case conferences, meetings with social workers or birth parents.

The second largest amount, £196,675, was paid for by the adult community care department, to transport older and disabled people and people with learning difficulties to and from day care or hospital appointments.

The council's youth service spent £50,195 on cabs in the past year, transporting young people to and from activities.

Some of the outlay was on taking members of the youth select committee safely home after late meetings, and the rest for transporting disabled children to youth centres in line with the Disability Discrimination Act. Similarly, much of the money used under Neighbourhood and Housing Services, £6,840, was to transport children and families to and from sessions at the family support scheme, run by the council's anti-social behaviour unit.

Other reasons for using taxis include taking witnesses to court to support prosecutions led by the council, and transport for disabled staff.

Legal, housing or human resources officials can use taxis when they have to take boxes of files with them to and from court hearings.

Staff without a car can also hire a cab to transport heavy and bulky equipment to a venue when setting up conferences or exhibitions.

The figures do not cover any money councillors might spend on fares, as this comes from individual allowances.

A spokesman for the council, which has 9,380 full-time and part-time staff, said: "It is very rare for staff who are able-bodied, not working very late or not needing to transport heavy or bulky files or equipment to get a taxi at the council taxpayers' expense.

"In most cases, staff would be encouraged to get a lift from someone else who drives, cycle, walk or take the bus."

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