Minutes

37      HUMBER AND WOLDS RURAL COMMUNITY COUNCIL: VOLUNTARY CAR SERVICE – The Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director: Commercial submitted a joint report seeking approval for a grant of £15,000 for Humber and Wolds Rural Community Council (HWRCC). This would ensure that a voluntary car service continued to run in North Lincolnshire for people who needed to make essential journeys but had no transport of their own and who cannot use or had no access to buses or trains.

HWRCC provided a voluntary car service (VCS) for elderly, lonely, isolated or disabled people who needed to make essential journeys but cannot use public transport and had no car of their own or anyone who could take them. The service arranged for volunteers to provide journeys using their own cars. The user would pay the driver’s expenses for the trip, usually a sum between the bus fare and a taxi fare.

The service was based in Barton upon Humber. It helped people living mainly in the rural parts of North Lincolnshire. The scheme was available to all residents in North Lincolnshire.

It provided journeys within the area and to outside destinations such as hospitals or taking carers to visit their relatives in residential care. It was highly valued by users as evidenced by passenger feedback.

Resolved – (a) That the grant of £15,000 in 2021/22 to HWRCC to support the Voluntary Car Service be approved, and (b) that the continuation of regular monitoring of passenger numbers and scheme impact on the community, health and social care services and individuals be carried out.