Aberdeen taxi drivers are to be helped through the continued drop in trade with grants of £1,000 – with a leading union heaping praise on city chiefs for the move.
The new funding – worth £860,000 all told – will be available as an automatic top up to those who have already received £1,500 in support earlier in the pandemic.
Money will come from the £6 million discretionary Covid cash the council received from the Scottish Government, after the national taxi driver and private hire fund closed at the end of last month.
Through that scheme, Aberdeen drivers received nearly £1.28m – but they face continued struggles with ongoing restrictions on travel and reduced footfall leaving some with as little as £30 at the end of their shift.
Unite Scotland praised the move, and called for all local authorities to “sit up and take notice” of Aberdeen and Dundee, where the local authority has already committed to doing the same.
But the union claimed fewer than three in five Scottish drivers had been reached in the previous round of funding, with no new applications being taken.
Unite industrial officer, Marc Jackson, said: “Unite welcomes this increased financial support by Aberdeen City Council.
“The extra money is welcome relief for drivers who have struggled for over a year now to make ends meet alongside the well documented difficulties in accessing government support.
“It’s vital that all local authorities across Scotland now follow the lead being set by Aberdeen City Council and others including Dundee and Angus.
“Far more needs to be done to support the taxi trade including the suspension of license fees.
“We hope that other local authorities sit up and take notice of what has been done here in Aberdeen and follow suit immediately.”
Aberdeen taxi driver Derek Davidson told The P&J: “There was a carry on the last time, when the council said if you didn’t have an email address you couldn’t get the grant.
“It’s been pretty bad for the drivers, some of us have been going home with only £30 for the whole day.
“It has not been good and doesn’t show much sign of picking up – and moving the taxi ranks in Aberdeen has not helped.
“But it’s good we are getting this £1,000 and that it has been done quickly, they said it would take about 10 days.”