Volunteer car pool good value in Cl
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VOLUNTEER car schemes for the aged and infirm run by the Women's Royal Volunteer Force are costing Clwyd Council as little as E1 per trip — and the bill for the service amounted to less than E660 for a year.
This emerges in a report on public transport initiatives in Clwyd. The report, "New Ways Forward", reviews alternative transport schemes already in operation and suggests ways of providing basic mobility for the housebound and for people without their own transport.
Two such systems have already been operating in the county since 1974. Drivers use their own cars and the council takes care of insurance and pays the driver a mileage rate. The scheme has been such a success that it has now been indefinitely extended and others may be introduced.
The service is intended only as supplementary transport for areas where bus or rail ser vices have dwindled or disappeared and will not abstract from existing stage carriage bus services.
The report also looks at several other services—among them the community bus scheme in the Cerrigydrudion area and the reduced-fares experiment on regular services. The reduced fares generated an extra 22 per cent revenue but cost the operator 28 per cent more. The report says that it is popular with passengers.