THE BBC has reduced its taxi bill in Scotland by more than £100,000 in a single year as the corporation looks to cut operational costs.

THE BBC has reduced its taxi bill in Scotland by more than £100,000 in a single year as the corporation looks to cut operational costs.

The bill was reduced to £466,108 last year from £570,000 in 2004-05 and from £720,000 the previous year, before a central booking system was introduced, designed to cut costs.

BBC Scotland receives more than £160m of public money every year. Mark Thompson, director general, recently warned of a £2bn black hole in the BBC's finances fuelled by lower than expected revenue from licence fees, and said there were "tough choices" ahead for the corporation. These are likely to mean new projects being scaled back or dropped and further savings sought.

It recently emerged that BBC Scotland's proposal to take on 36 video journalists to produce extra reports for internet services and TV bulletins was in doubt because of a tight licence fee settlement in which the government broke the historic link between BBC funding and inflation.

BBC Scotland said it would shed up to 240 jobs over three years as part of the corporation's drive, announced in 2005, to cut nearly 4000 posts. Just under 130 of those have so far gone, taking the staffing complement down to around 3700. Talks are continuing about the fate of the rest.