Stephen Crawford of Fermanagh Community Transport RMGFH105
A COMMUNITY transport group, based in Enniskillen, that provides subsidised transport to eligible people in isolated parts of the county, including Dial-a-Lift, is fighting back against a 39 per cent cut in funding.
The manager of Fermanagh Community Transport, Stephen Crawford said his board, the staff and volunteers were ‘very disappointed’ with the extent of the cut, 39 per cent.
But, he was adamant that meeting his members’ needs throughout Fermanagh remained a priority.
He stated: “Our members do not want to see services cut. With this in mind, we have already put a few things in place in order to maintain the service levels offered to our members.”
FCT membership is open to anyone living in Fermanagh who lives in a rural area and does not have access to a car or who does not have access to public transport.
He then outlined an agreed course of action so as to offer members a viable level of service.
“Firstly, we have implemented a small fare increase on all our journeys – the first fare increase since 2009.
Secondly, it is with regret that we have had to restrict our ‘Dial a Lift’ service to 3 (from 5) days in any week.
“This means that although our members can still travel with us as often as they wish, they will pay an increased non-Dial a Lift fare on the 4th and 5th day that they travel in any given week”.
He said FCT had held off restricting its ‘Dial a Lift’ service to 2 days a week for its isolated members, many of whom had few alternatives for travel.
“Unfortunately, this action has had a significant impact on many of our most vulnerable members who use the service most frequently”.
Voucher scheme
This week, Fermanagh Community Transport have announced a voucher Scheme to support travel costs for community groups and organisations.
Groups can apply for a £100 voucher towards the cost of FCT transport – self drive or with an FCT driver- to be used during a given 3-month period.
The first phase of the voucher scheme is for travel July, August and September 2015.
Groups must be non-profit making, be based in or contain members mostly from Fermanagh, be a current FCT member, have 16 or less people travelling, and travel must be on evenings or weekends.
For an application pack and more details call 028 66 324260 or email info@fermanaghcommunitytransport.com.
Completed applications must be received by Friday 5th June this year.
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