Taxpayer spends £3,300 a day on police car tyres

Police vehicles log three times the mileage of a family car. Picture: Robert Perry

According to newly published figures, costs for tyres and windscreens for the fleet of cars, vans and other vehicles throughout the country has run up a tab of more than £2.6m since the  beginning of 2011.

That means the bill stands at nearly £100,000 a month, or over £3,330 each day, at a time when the new national forces is tasked with identifying swingeing cuts to its budget.

The lion’s share consists of new tyres fitted to police cars, which accounts for £2,511,805 of the total. The remainder was spent replacing glass for windscreens and windows.

However, the new national police force defended the size of the costs, claiming that vehicles typically travel more than three times the distance of the average car each year.

The costs, released under Freedom of Information legislation, detail repair work carried out between January 2011 and the end of April this year.

The figures are collated using data from the eight forces which existed prior to the creation of a single national unit, Police Scotland, which came into being on 1 April.

The region with the highest bill consists of the Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Argyll and West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and Inverclyde divisions, formerly part of Strathclyde Police, then Scotland’s largest force.

Over the period, it spent a total of £1,190,171 on work to its fleet, comprising £1,157,047 for new tyres and £33,124 for the fitting of replacement glass. The region with the second-highest spend was the former Tayside Police area, which amassed a bill of £368,962, followed by the former Lothian and Borders region, which spent £357,230 on its fleet.

Police Scotland says it has identified savings of nearly £2m in transport costs by 2013-14.

A spokesman the force said: “Police Scotland has a fleet of 3,500 vehicles. These vehicles range from motorcycles to HGVs and the figure quoted in the Freedom of Information request equates to repairs of  approximately £28 per vehicle per month.

“Police vehicles travel around 30,000 miles per year which is around three times the mileage of an average family car and are on our roads keeping people safe around 18 hours a day, seven days a week.”

He added: “The majority of work undertaken to repair and maintain our fleet is done in-house with some specialist work being undertaken outside.”

A spokeswoman for the  newly established Scottish Police Authority said: “Scrutinising the costs associated with the transport fleet is an essential focus in the months ahead.

“We expect this to be set out in a structured and detailed strategy and articulate exactly what contribution fleet can make to the efficiency savings.”