WE WELCOME your report of August 21 announcing that “more cash could be put on the table for dial-a-ride”.

Doubling the existing provision of dial-a-ride services within the city should be of considerable benefit and we hope that the city and county councils will be able to reach an agreement.

However, we are concerned that there are still residents, like Iris Lewis, who have not been able to use dial-a-ride for lifts to social clubs, simply because they need assistance to help them from their front doors to the bus.

In our experience, this personal care is essential for many of our own passengers and we insist that all our drivers are accompanied by trained passenger carers able to assist other passengers.

We pride ourselves on being able to collect anyone from their front door and also return them home.

This, we suggest, is one advantage of community transport, because we serve community organisations rather than run a general pick-up service, although we do fully appreciate the operating restrictions of the dial-a-ride service.

We started our community transport services initially to meet the needs of seniors but we also now help many juniors and also families who do not have their own transport.

Serving mainly Cutteslowe, Wolvercote and Wytham, we are now expanding services to other neighbourhoods in the city and adjoining parishes.

We are not the only community transport providers in the city but like all voluntary services we are dependent on volunteers, especially drivers. The blunt fact is that our bus could be used seven days a week and serve a wider area if only we had the drivers to meet the demand.

Bill Bliss and Christopher Gowers, Cutteslowe Wolvercote Wytham Community Transport

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