Dave Humphrey, a taxi driver who had spent six years fighting illegal behaviour by Fenland Association of Community Transport (FACT), a community transport provider, has received an apology and £30,000 compensation from Cambridgeshire County Council, reported the Cambs Times newspaper.
Cambs Times reported that the financial agreement was announced on 17 May 2019 by county council bosses after they also revealed that both Chief Executive Gillian Beasley and Council Leader Steve Count had apologised to Dave Humphrey.
“The council has now agreed with Mr Humphrey on a final settlement of £30,000 to compensate for his lost earnings over this time,” said a council statement.
The money was also “in recognition of the adverse effects that his work to bring this issue to a conclusion has caused him.”
Mr Humphrey’s efforts – heavily supported throughout by the Cambs Times – led to the commissioning by the county council of an independent study that confirmed multiple irregularities dating back many years overpayments made to the FACT and its Huntingdon and Ely subsidiaries.
Part of the outcome of the county council’s own commissioned inquiry, the PKF report, led to over 50 changes being made to the funding of FACT.
It also led to the immediate departure of former Manager Jo Philpott and, later, to the departure from the FACT board of some trustees, including former Councillor Kit Owen.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds may yet be required to be paid back to the county council once more investigatory work has been done on public sector funding and whether grants have been given to FACT in breach of regulations.
The council statement said: “The association believed taxi drivers and private hire companies were being unfairly disadvantaged in bidding for transport contracts from the council – a view confirmed when the results of the independent PKF report was heard by the council’s audit and accounts committee last July.”
The council says that the inquiry showed they had made mistakes in the way it procured community transport and in its dealings with FACT and its subsidiaries which had disadvantaged other local transport providers.
Cambs Times summarised by stating that: “The report also set out an action plan for improvements aimed at both the council and FACT/HACT and ESACT” (Its Huntingdon and Ely subsidiaries).