VITAL ring and ride services providing a lifeline to vulnerable people in the Okehampton area could have to fold if the Government enforces European regulations, its operators have warned.

Okehampton District Community Transport Association is one of 14 community transport schemes across Devon facing an uncertain future after a commercial bus company challenged current UK guidance in the European courts.

As a result, community buses with more than nine seats would be subject to the same regulations as buses, minibuses and coaches run for profit and community transport drivers would have to have the same qualifications as professional drivers.

Up to now community transport, run for the benefit of local people, has effectively been exempt from full commercial licensing.

Sue Wonnacott, co-ordinator of the Okehampton District Community Transport Association, said the extra costs involved would be ‘impossible’ for the organisation to meet.

han 274 square miles of rural Devon and we are the only option for day-to-day accessible transport,’ she said. ‘Because of the things we do, we often drive more than 100 miles to pick up our passengers for just £5 so I don’t think the local bus companies see us as a threat at all. Unfortunately, this has caused problems in another part of the country and it is going to impact on us here in Devon as well.’

The changes mean the association would have to apply for full commercial licences for its two paid drivers, at a cost of more than £1,700 each. The trustees would also need to obtain a commercial licence for the organisation.

‘For us it would be really impossible,’ said Mrs Wonnacott. ‘They are also saying we would have to have extra insurance and we just haven’t got the funds for that. We just can’t afford it.

’We have a good relationship with the people we work with now but if we have got to adopt the new rules and regulations I think we are going to lose volunteers and trustees. It puts us in a very difficult situation.

‘If we all have to close that is going to be a very sad day. Loneliness in our area is a huge problem and that is what we’re here to address so people can get out and about, can do their shopping and meet their friends.

‘We have got over 1,500 people registered in our system and we also help local care facilities as well, and with things like losing the beds at Okehampton Hospital, that is putting more and more pressure on our services.

’A lot of our clients are quite vulnerable and they haven’t got a voice of their own so we have to be a voice for them.’

Representatives from Okehampton and District Community Transport Association joined others from similar ‘ring and ride’ schemes across Devon to voice their concerns at a meeting at County Hall in Exeter earlier this month. It was attended by officials from the Department for Transport, who are currently consulting on its need to find a way through the changes. The consultation runs until May 5.

The representatives appealed to the officials to find a way around the changes, which have come about because of legal challenges where commercial coach companies objected to community transport organisations bidding for competitively tendered contracts.

The county council, which subsidises ring and ride schemes, is aware that the new rules would mean that they could no longer help them meet their obligations to vulnerable people to access services in such a rural county.

These include such cases as taking a disabled child to school, which as a local authority contract would no longer be allowed unless the local authority could prove no commercial operator wanted to take on the work.

The county council’s Cabinet member for community and public transport, Roger Croad, said: ‘We fear that many local organisations which signed up as charitable concerns will say they do not want to effectively become commercial operators which would mean they could lose out on running future local authority contracts.’

The county council currently grants around £250,000 to 14 community schemes which operate pre-booked transport such as ring and ride, and the community transport groups use that cash as a basis to qualify for more grants from other local councils and organisations.

There are around 239,000 passenger trips a year on community transport in Devon with 150 volunteers driving minibuses and 75 paid permit drivers.

Mr Croad said: ‘We will obviously work with these groups to help them comply with any new rules that come in. We also reiterate our promise to ensure that no community is completely cut off but firstly what we must do is ensure that the Government is well aware of the potential consequences of this action and we have contacted our MPs to alert them. We must all make sure that the continued existence of these vital community services is not put at risk.’

Mrs Wonnacott said she and other ‘ring and ride’ service co-ordinators had asked if there could be an exemption for organisations which had less than five vehicles.

‘We think that would solve the problem, because it is the big operators that are causing the problems. If you speak to some of our local operators, they don’t see as a threat, because they don’t want to take on the jobs we do. It just won’t pay.’

Tony Hazell, director and owner of Carmel Coaches in Northlew, which operates in the Okehampton area, said he could understand the concerns of some commercial coach companies but did not see Okehampton District Community Transport Association as a threat to his business.

‘Some of these “ring and ride” operations have expanded recently, and they are bidding for school contracts and some contractors are up in arms about it because they are competing with someone who has grants to buy vehicles and isn’t subject to the same rules and regulations.

‘Personally we aren’t worried about it because we are quite friendly with the Okehampton District Community Transport Association, and in fact we lend our drivers to help drive for them.

‘I think that what they do with wheelchair access vehicles, taking people out for trips who are wheelchair bound, they do very well. I know there are a few trips out which could be said to be taking business away from us, but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.’

• Pictured below are members of the community transport team from Okehampton with the vehicles.