What a non-story, but what else is to be expected of such a lazy, sloppy and generally disinterested with journalism publication as the chipwrapper?
It's so without any context whatsoever it's just useless words. Is it more or less than for other Police forces? Is it more or less than for other businesses' car parks in Edinburgh. How much was claimable on insurance. How much was caused when the blue lights were on? How much was the fault (or not) of the Police driver?
And since when was £800,000 over 4 years some sort of milestone mark that gets "slammed" through?
There's a cheap line that says;
Among the police vehicles involved were Mercedes, BMW 5 Series and Range Rovers.
Uh-huh. The Police drive some fast, expensive and high powered cars. They have to, and some of these are going to get damaged. Is there significantly more damage to these sort of response vehicles than to "panda cars" or paddy wagons? Does the EEN even have the most rudimentary comprehension of statistics? (retorical)
Then it says;
The cost of damage rose from £116,900 in 2008 to £149,700 in 2009 and again to £153,400 last year, although all of those years were lower than 2007 when the bill was £172,400.
So the article could have said "costs are now lower than they were 4 years ago, despite inflation". Oh but then that wouldn't have been a "story".
Jeeeeeeeez Louise!
</rant>
<don't know why I bothered, but I feel a bit better for it>