Business as usual despite cuts (From Gazette Series)

Business as usual despite cuts

A GROUP of volunteer drivers have said they can continue driving people to hospital appointments despite receiving a 25 percent cut in funding from the county council.

Wotton and District Volunteers were told last month that the amount of funding they receive from Gloucestershire County Council would be reduced from £2,000 to £1,500.

Wynne Holcombe, transport organiser for the group, this week reassured users of the service and said the reduction would not affect the service volunteers provide.

She said: "They have cut the funding by 25 percent but we are not worried because we have money in reserve. The county council has cut a lot of funding recently and I believe we are lucky, some people have not had any money at all."

Wotton and District Volunteers drive people - mainly the elderly and those who do not have transport of their own - to a variety of healthcare appointments at hospitals and doctors' surgeries in the district.

"We take people to all the major hospitals in Cheltenham, Bristol and Gloucester as well as the smaller ones in Stroud and Berkeley. We provide a service for people who can't always get to their appointments by bus," Mrs Holcombe said.

The voluntary group has been running for more than 40 years and relies completely on donations and grants from local charities. The county council's funding did not fund the project completely but helped to subsidise the volunteer's drivers' petrol costs.

Mrs Holcombe added: "We are already funding half. This reduction just means we have to fund a little bit more."

Laura Bowdler, spokesman for Gloucestershire County Council, said the reduction was due to an unusually high number of applicants for grants this year.

She said: "The county council is giving Wotton Volunteers Service a grant of £1,500 this year. We have received twice as many grant applications for money this year. Unfortunately, this means that some of the grants given to voluntary services have to be decreased, to be fair to everyone.

"The county council grants cannot be used to subsidise non-emergency ambulance journeys. Wotton Volunteers Service concentrates more on hospital visits, hence the reduction."

She added: "The county council, however, also funds other services in the area which provide voluntary transport services to local people."