Get the stories that matter to you sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

THE granddaughter of an MSP has been awarded s27,000 for taxi fares to go to dance classes.



Hannah Thomson, 13, will receive the council funding to her to and from the talent school in Glasgow.

Yesterday, the grant sparked a row and one SNP councillor hit out: "It's scandalous. I think the council has got to have a big hard what they're doing."



Hannah is the granddaughter Labour MSP John Pentland, represents Motherwell and Wishaw.

He is also still a councillor at North Lanarkshire, the local authority who made the award.



Talented Hannah will be chauffeured from her home in Cleland, Lanarkshire, by taxi to Knightswood School at a cost of s9120 a year for three years.

Hannah's name or her relationship to the MSP were not revealed in the council minutes which show GTS Taxis won the contract.

SNP councillor John Taggart slammed the award and said: "This service is for the needy as far as I'm concerned. There is no need for the council to be paying for this."

Last night, Pentland was unavailable for comment but Hannah's dad Kenneth Thomson said: "There is no correlation with John Pentland becoming an MSP with this coming into place.

"John has absolutely nothing to do with this and I would refute anyone that says that is the case. I went through the proper channels and it ended up where it ended up.

"I wouldn't know what people think. We did what anyone else would do and inquired about the available support for when a child is talented."

Knightswood School is funded by the Scottish government and is not fee-paying.

It says its aim is to develop the talent of young people in the arts, while giving them a top-class education.