Donations help fund new transport service

A new transport service in Belper will help prevent people becoming isolated, according to one of its founders.

The charity Derbyshire Community Transport, which provided on-demand lifts for people for shopping trips and medical appointments, was liquidated last October.

Now a group of people in Belper have set up a Community Interest Company (CIC) and formed Belper Community Transport, which offers a similar service to people in the town and its surrounding area.

Siobhan Fennell, who helped set up the company, is a wheelchair user who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, and she said she had found it hard since Derbyshire Community Transport folded.

"I have become housebound for the last few months," she told the BBC. "I have been so isolated. You tend to get a bit lonely because you are not able to get out and see your friends or go to hospital appointments."

The CIC uses three vehicles - a minibus and a couple of estate vehicles previously used by Derbyshire Community Transport.

Belper Community Transport raised £39,000 in donations to launch the service and estimates there are about 600 wheelchair users in Belper who would benefit from it.

The service makes use of 16 volunteer drivers and has its own website for bookings.

Fleet manager Andy McMillan, who is also a volunteer driver, said he got involved because his father-in-law had benefitted from using Derbyshire Community Transport.

"It was excellent to take him out from his home, because he was wheelchair-bound, and we could take him to restaurants," he said.

"He loved watching cricket and we could take him to a local cricket ground and he could enjoy the sunshine and we were not pressed for time.

"It was just such a great thing for him to do. So I am more than happy to spend my time supporting this activity."

The service will also be used by residents at Milford House Care Home.

Donna Stanton, who works at the home, said: "We are absolutely thrilled [about this service].

"It's different getting out - even if it's just to Matlock Bath for fish and chips or just driving around Derbyshire.

"It's just wonderful because they [the residents] can reminisce about where they have been."

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