Community transport charity set to lose funding

Some community transport users say the service is their only chance to get out

A charity operating community transport in Hampshire has said it is a false economy to cut services for older and less mobile people.

Community First is set to lose a grant of £500,000 from Hampshire County Council as part of the authority's plans to save £132m before April.

Older people who use the service have told the BBC it gives them their only outing of the week.

The council said it was seeing rising costs, increased demand for adult social care and had to balance its books.

A charity running community transport is set to lose a grant of £500,000

Fabian Cook, transport manager at Community First, said: “We’ve done studies into the social value of our service which show we deliver £1m of indirect savings in healthcare, reducing social isolation, giving people access to friendship and the community.”

Jean Polly, who uses the community transport, said: “This service is vital.

"To come by bus I’d have to cross two roads and - with my walker, because of how slow I am - I can’t do it.

“It’s my only time I can get out to the shops, it’s my one time to leave my home in a week.”

Another bus user, Marion Sutcliffe, said: “There is a good sense of friendship on the bus, we all say hello to each other.”

The county council is proposing cutting £1.7m from its passenger transport budget, which would also see grants go to the Wheels at Work scheme that offers mopeds for hire to young people in rural communities who struggle to access employment.

Its future services consultation closes on 31 March.