Plea for disabled bus lifeline

Fearful users of a vital bus service for the elderly and disabled today pleaded with council chiefs to: "Save our lifeline."
Blackpool Council is considering pulling its £150,000-a-year funding for Ride-Ability.

The charity – formerly known as Dial-A-Ride – has operated from Clifton Street for 20 years and provides door-to-door transport to social events, leisure venues and shops for around 120 passengers every day.

But there are concerns it is no longer cost-effective following the introduction of more disabled friendly public transport and free nationwide bus travel for the over 60s.

Blackpool Council, which pays for three Ride-Ability buses, with other two paid for by Lancashire County Council, say passenger numbers have dropped while the cost to the taxpayer has rocketed.

Replacing the buses with taxis could be one alternative.

But Ride-Ability chairman Martin Wilson said: "If the funding is withdrawn at the end of September, as has been proposed, we will no longer be able to operate. Some of these people will never be able to get out - they will be prisoners in their own homes. I know the cost of funding our service is considerable, but we are a charity and it's about providing a much-needed service for the community."

Mr Wilson, who has now written to all local councillors and MPs in a bid to save the service, said some regular users could not get to bus stops to use public transport, while the personal service offered by his drivers would be lost.

He added: "Our drivers help them with shopping, carry their bags and take them to and from the door. We know each client personally and it's a friendly, family-type operation."

Ride-Ability receives no funding other than from the two councils. Anchorsholme resident Audrey Brambles, 78, whose husband Eric, 83, was left disabled after a stroke 12 years ago and uses the service twice-a-week, said she would be disgusted if funding was pulled.

She said: "When we go out together, I cannot drive and I can't manage the wheelchair on public transport.

"My husband fought for this country, he has paid his taxes. The service isn't free, you have to pay the half fare, but I'm happy to do that. It just seems there is plenty of money for other things such as those horrible light arches in Birley Street."

Don Wilson, 74, from North Shore, who is blind, also regularly uses the service with his partner Coleen Tilling, 70, who uses a wheelchair due to arthritis.

Mr Wilson added: "Without this service our only options would be taxis or hoping for kindness of Good Samaritans."

And Anita Wright, of Blackpool, whose husband works as a driver for Ride-Ability, said: "If it's cut, it will have a devastating effect on vulnerable people who need this transportation."

Council leader Peter Callow stressed no decision had yet been taken over Ride-Ability. And he pledged whatever happened the council would not leave disabled and elderly people stranded.

He said: "We have a duty to the council taxpayer to make sure we get the best deal for them. Everything we do we have to look at costs.

"But that does not mean we will sacrifice the users of the Ride-Ability service to do that – we are not that type of council.

"If we have to find an alternative to carry out this service, such as use taxis, then that is what we will do."

Coun Callow added the success of concessionary fares, and improved disabled access on public transport, meant there were now alternatives to Dial-Ability.

He said: "People have been voting with their feet and Ride-Ability's total journeys have gone down by 27 per cent and journeys by wheelchair users have fallen by 44 per cent. The council must be committed to getting value for money for taxpayers and the subsidy for each Ride-Ability journey has risen from £8.46 in 2006/07 to £11.65 in 2008/09.

"This not a council which would leave pensioners and disabled people stranded. We want them to enjoy life to the full and not be confined to their own homes."

Lancashire County Council is also looking at alternatives to Ride-Ability.

Tim Gornall, bus services manage at County Hall, said: "The county council's funding for Rideability was agreed to run until October
of this year and there are no plans to change this.

"We will be going out to tender for the service with the intention of it continuing to run after October."