The BBC is again under fire for the relentless way it pisses TV licence fee payers' money against a wall.
Figures obtained by the Sunday Express show that over the last 4 years the national broadcaster paid for 4,407 rail tickets, 1,339 taxi journeys and 568 hotel rooms that went unused and unrefunded.
Aborted rail journeys cost the BBC £219,000; abandoned taxi journeys cost £21,000; and unused hotel rooms cost £57,000.
Simon Richards, chief executive of the Freedom Association, said: "At a time when many families are watching every penny in order to afford a summer holiday for their children, the BBC has admitted to wasting over £200,000 on cancelled rail fares.
"It's a sign of a cavalier attitude to TV licence payers’ money, at a time when the BBC is intent on scrapping free licences for the elderly.
"The BBC not only splashes out excessive salaries to millionaires, such as Gary Lineker, but seems incapable of exercising the kind of basic avoidance of waste licence payers have to exercise in their everyday lives.
"It's time to axe the TV tax and make the BBC follow the same disciplines as private sector broadcasters."
With the cost of a BBC TV licence having recently risen to £154.50, this latest BBC splurge is the equivalent of around 2,000 TV licence fees.
This most recent example of BBC financial impropriety follows hot on the heals of the Corporation's decision to tighten the eligibility criteria of the "free"over-75 TV licence, having told the Government that it was too impoverished to continue funding the full concession.
A BBC spokesman said: "As a 24-hour international broadcaster, a significant amount of travel is inevitable and the nature of our work means plans can often change at short notice.
"We are always mindful of costs and have strict policies in place.
"Overall we have cut costs and made significant savings so 95 per cent of the money we control is spent on what matters most – the content and services our audiences love."
The content our audiences love? Deluded much?!
There has never been a better time to cancel your BBC TV licence, starve the beast and take up an alternative legally-licence-free mode of viewing.
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