A REVIEW into the cost of city council officers using taxis on work-related business could be widened.
The move comes after it was revealed just over £11,000 had been spent by the authority over the last three years on ferrying council officers around Hull by taxi.
The average fare was £7.78.
According to a report, most journeys involved "monitoring and reporting" work, closely followed by disability issues caused by illness.
Councillor Simone Butterworth, chairman of the council's value for money scrutiny committee, said: "We have all got concerns about the extent of this."
She said while it was clear many journeys were necessary because they involved social workers accompanying vulnerable children on visits to schools, there were still questions to be asked about the issue.
She said when council budgets were being cut, every taxi journey needed to be justified.
Councillor Abi Bell said: "We need a wider review of staff transport costs across the council.
"We need to be looking at the whole issue, not just taxis.
"From a value for money perspective, we need to be looking at rail and air travel and hotel costs for staff attending conferences."
Councillors also questioned why the cost of officers using taxis had more than doubled in 2012-13 compared with the previous 12 months.
Last year, the total cost was £7,134 as a result of 848 journeys, while the figure for 2011-12 was £3,327 after 525 recorded journeys.
Councillor John Abbott said the data provided to the committee also lacked clear details on destinations and why taxis had been used in the first place for particular trips.
Graham Hall, the council's transport manager, said social workers accompanying young children on visits to schools and contact sessions represented the majority of journeys incurred by officers.
"It would not be right to expect young people to travel by taxi on their own," he said.
Mr Hall also claimed the number of council staff using their own cars for work purposes had reduced in recent years as a result of the cost of motoring and the introduction of car parking charges for staff in some areas.
"A lot of people now come into work by bus but there will be occasions when someone without access to a car has to carry some equipment with them to somewhere and a taxi is the only option."
Councillor Tom McVie said there needed to be a "sense of proportion" applied to any debate about staff taxi costs.
"It seems to me to be entirely appropriate for people to use taxis for small journeys.
"If you divide 848 journeys by the number of staff we have, it is really a microscopic number that we are talking about every year, even if the figure is bigger than the previous year.
"People are entitled to decide to stop using their car to get to work if they want to and we can't stop them doing that unless they happen to have a job that is already identified as being one which requires essential car use.
"I think we need to put this into proportion."
