
Buckinghamshire Council has flatly denied social media claims that it spent nearly £1 billion on taxi services, explaining that the massive figure was actually the result of a data-entry error.
The controversy began when local resident Andrew Matthews shared a screenshot on X from a government procurement tracking website.
The image showed a five-year contract for school and college transport routes valued at a staggering £819,489,040.
In his post, Mr Matthews branded the spending "insane," claiming the council was burning through £163 million a year on taxis and arguing that "the council could run an equivalent transport service for a fraction of this cost."
The post quickly went viral, gaining over 1.3 million views and sparking widespread online fury. However, council officials quickly stepped in to correct the record.
Replying directly on social media, the authority stated: “The amount shown on this website is incorrect and is a data entry error," adding that they had contacted the site to demand an urgent fix.
Thomas Broom, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for transport, pointed out that a crucial warning had been "conveniently cropped off" the viral screenshot.
He explained that anyone scrolling down to the supplier allocations would see the correct figure of £8,194,890.
While Mr Matthews doubled down by firing back that the council submitted the data and told senior leadership to "get a grip," the website UKGovScan has since updated the page with a correction notice.
The site confirmed the headline value was "likely a data-entry error" caused by a 100x slip - such as entering pence as pounds.
When adding up the 16 individual supplier contract values listed in the text, the actual total was just over £8.1 million, exactly one-hundredth of the viral figure.

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