A 'lifeline' for elderly and disabled villagers has been handed a reprieve for a year thanks to a £45,000 grant from a Burton charity.
The Consolidated Charity of Burton upon Trent has stepped in to provide the cash needed to fund Mobility Link's Needwood Connect route, which operates a Dial-a-Ride bus service, for a further year
Mobility Link, based in Stapenhill, provides door-to-door services and said its routes were under threat due to council budget cuts. The possible threat to the service had reduced many passengers who rely on the service to tears. They say the loss of the service would leave then trapped in their own homes and unable to get to the shops.
The service threat comes as Staffordshire County Council looks to axe thousands from its budget. The Needwood service, which operates in areas including Hanbury and Tatenhill, costs £53,000 alone a year for the authority to subsidise.
However, while the cut is out for consultation, the Consolidated Charity grant has meant a stay of execution is certain – for a year at least.
Peter Davies, chairman of the board at Mobility Link, called the grant "tremendous" news, saying it would be welcomed by its 200-plus bus passengers.
He said: "We have been looking to find funding elsewhere and wondered if the Consolidated Charity could provide any funding and they stepped up to support us.
"For organisations like Mobility Link, the charity has a separate pot of money to provide funding. If this had closed so many elderly people would have been isolated so this is tremendous news."
Mr Davies, who is also a trustee of the Consolidated Charity, took no part in the charity's discussions about the funding.
The county council has launched a consultation on how the budget for subsidising bus travel in Staffordshire can be best spent.
By 2020/21 the grant it gets from the government will be zero, so then only vital county council services will be funded by local council tax and business rates.
All bus journeys made in Staffordshire are operated by either private bus companies or by voluntary and community organisations and the eight-week consultation looks only at the bus journeys subsidised by the county council.
This includes cash it gives to Mobility Link which comes under the Dial-a-Ride umbrella, which also operates Staffordshire Moorlands and South Staffordshire Connect services.
The council has come up with four possible options for public bus journeys and Mobility Link services it currently subsidises, which in some cases can cost as much as £10 per passenger per journey because too few people use the services or not enough income is generated to cover the costs, it says.
The council's preferred option is to revise the local subsidised bus services based on the lowest subsidy per passenger journey as it maintains the greatest number of journeys currently subsidised by the authority – and the lowest subsidy per passenger trip at £1.60. However, it would mean there would be no Dial-a-Ride services.
About Needwood Connect
This is advertised as the easy way to get around your local area without a car. It offers transport to villages or connections for onward travel in the area.
It is available for anyone who lives, works or visits in the area. There is no age restriction and the service can accommodate people with wheelchairs.
The bus has seats for up to 15 passengers and can accommodate wheelchairs
The service operates door to door in villages such as Hanbury, Hoar Cross, Rangemore, Tatenhill, Yoxall, Dunstall, Draycott in the Clay, Anslow Gate, to Burton. It runs from 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday.
