THE Okehampton and District Community Transport Group has taken delivery of a smart new wheelchair accessible vehicle.

The Ford Tourneo replaces the group’s old wheelchair accessible people carrier which was coming to the end of its life after 10 years.

The new vehicle will be used to take housebound people and others without transport on trips and to essential appointments.

It was officially unveiled at the charity’s headquarters on Okehampton Business Park on Monday (August 12) at a gathering attended by volunteer drivers and many of those who had helped to fund it.

Transport group coordinator Sue Wonnacott said: ‘Our old vehicle was getting a bit long in the tooth so we decided we needed to replace it.

‘We need a reliable vehicle as we can’t be having breakdowns with passengers in wheelchairs in the back.

‘We are a small charity so we don’t have a lot of funds. We are really grateful, therefore, to all the charities that have supported us.

‘We have had huge local support, most of the charities that have supported us are local, and we have also done some fundraising ourselves — we have run a charity pop up shop — and people have been very good in providing goods to sell.’

The new Ford Tourneo people carrier has been funded by donations from Okehampton county councillor James McInnes, through his locality grant, and a number of local charities.

These include the Friends of Okehampton Hospital, Tesco Bags of Help, the Co-op Community Fund, Okehampton United Charities, the Matthews Wrightson Charity Trust, Okehampton Lions’ Club, Waitrose Community Matters, the Okehampton Show and Okehampton Inner Wheel.

Representatives from the charities were given a demonstration of the wizardry of the new vehicle, which has space for two wheelchairs which can easily be converted back to seating.

Some of the charity’s volunteer drivers also came along on Monday to see the new vehicle they would be driving.

‘They’ll be a lot of smiling faces among our customers and our volunteers’ said Sue. ‘Our volunteers work very hard for us so we want to provide them with something that is easy and pleasant to drive.’

At the ceremony on Monday, Sue also made a presentation to volunteer Mark Read, to thank him for his efforts in 20 years as the driver of the group’s ‘ring and ride’ wheelchair-accessible minibus. This service takes people without transport from Okehampton and surrounding villages into town to do their shopping and make appointments. It too can take wheelchairs.

Sue said: ‘Mark is the backbone of the organisation and people really appreciate his kindness every day of the week. In the office, too, we really rely on his knowledge. I’ve been here for 12 years and he has helped me such a lot, so I want to say “thank you Mark”.’

Among those present at the ceremony was West Devon mayor and local councillor Tony Leech, who said: ‘I am extremely pleased that the Okehampton Community Transport Group has managed to purchase a new vehicle outright, thanks to a lot of hard work by the staff and volunteers and as well as the local charities. It shows that the community really understands the value of this service.  I am particularly pleased as the community transport groups around West Devon are my chosen charities this year.’

The transport group’s fundraising efforts will continue to replace the other of its two wheelchair accessible minibuses following its return to the county council this year, which is used to run popular ‘lifestyle trips’.

The transport group received £40,000 from the Holditch and Others charities which wound up earlier this month and now needs to raise the same amount again to fund the new minibus.

The charity is looking to recruit more volunteer drivers, both to drive the new people carrier and another smaller wheelchair accessible vehicle and to transport clients in heir own cars.

Drivers are being sought in particular in the South Zeal, North Tawton and Chagford areas.

Sue said: ‘There has been an increase in our demand for our services again this year.

‘This is putting increased pressure on both the drivers and administration to try and fulfil the requests received.

‘At the current time we do need more drivers to help keep the service running smoothly, including some willing to drive our wheelchair accessible vehicles, although we have successfully recruited several new drivers during the last year. We receive many very short notice appointment requests and these, along with the many cancellations at short notice, increase the pressure as they are more time-consuming to organise.

‘We recorded 131 journeys which were were unable to cover due to short notice or lack of volunteers and 730 cancellations.’