Dial-a-ride, a lifeline for elderly housebound people, is to be scrapped in The Deepings, Stamford and Bourne. But not in Grantham.
The Stamford Mercury report that Lincolnshire County Council will only continue to fund Dial-a-Ride in partnership with district councils.
Just a month after Grantham-based South Kesteven District Council was shamed as the only district in Lincolnshire to refuse to support extending bus passes for over-60s and disabled people, they - and Spalding-based South Holland are the only two districts refusing to back Dial-a-Ride.
The fact that South Kesteven will continue to fund Dial-a-Ride for Grantham only adds insult to injury.
A total disgrace.
UPDATE: I see there is a partial Call Connect service to be launched as a partial replacement for Dial-a-Ride where there are no local buses.
UPDATE 2: As of Friday morning, still no news on SKDC's own information website about the scrapping of Dial-a-Ride in The Deepings, Bourne and Stamford. SKDC's website has some info on the scheme, but says the last update on info on Dial-a-Ride was made in September last year...
More important, no information at all on the Call Connect 'service', which the Mercury says will not be provided on bus routes...The whole point of Dial-a-Ride was that it was specifically aimed at people who were unable to use local buses!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
This post is mainly right, but it seems that only the support of Lincs County Council has preserved the gutted remnants of Dail-a-ride in Grantham.
The point is that the Lincs County Council sponsored CallConnect Bus service has now started for the Bourne area and, in my opinion, makes a reasonable substitute for Dail-a-Ride.
It has all the high tech wheelchair features and we took one on in Rippingale yesterday. And unlike Dail-a-ride the fares are normal.
This leaves Stamford without any cover, so your basic point, Phil, is strong.
When challenged about this, South Kesteven say that Dail-a -Ride
in Stamford had only 5 regular users, but they don't seem to draw the obvious conclusion which is that Interconnect/CallConnect should be extended to Stamford.
The lack of interest in public transport by South Kesteven borders on the pathological, although the obstacles to getting CallConnect into Stamford are much more complex than merely being the indifference/mute hostility of South Kesteven District Council, reliable though that is.
Thanks for the info Brynley. I've now received a leaflet on the partial replacement service and will post on it when i've had a chance to decipher it...
hope you're enjoying summer.
Post a Comment