Finance secretary "not forgotten" struggling taxi drivers
A support fund for taxi drivers was due to launch on Monday.
Last updated 13th Jan 2021
The Finance secretary says taxi drivers haven't been forgotten about and the promised funding from the Scottish government will be launched this month as planned.
MSP Kate Forbes pledged on twitter that the taxi and private hire support fund will be open for applications as promised.
It was supposed to go live on Monday. And drivers say there's no sign of the money.
The scheme would provide ÂŁ1,000 to each driver, costing a total ÂŁ19m.
It comes as taxi and private hire drivers in Dundee say they're struggling to make ends meat with demand plummeting during the pandemic.
Dundee taxi driver John Curran says they've lost between 70-80% of their trade, and there's been "no sign" of the promised funding.
In a statement, the Scottish Government says the scheme will go live this month as promised:
“Since October we have allocated a further £715 million of COVID-19 business support, including £225 million that was announced in December to close the gaps in UK-wide schemes.
“In December we announced a new £19 million fund to financially support taxi drivers through one-off grants. We were clear that this funding would go live in January and we will announce further details shortly.”