THE Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) has given two Basingstoke charities a funding boost.

As part of their commitment to support local and national charitable causes, the company has donated £1,000 to Basingstoke Dial-a-Ride and £200 to Basingstoke Shopmobility.

Both charities support members of the public with mobility impairments, enabling isolated people to get out and about in the borough.

Basingstoke Dial-a-Ride – which is also one of Councillor Roger Gardiner’s, the new Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane, charities of the year – provides a bus service for residents with restricted mobility in the borough as well as parts of East Hampshire.

Basingstoke Shopmobility provides a wide range of mobility scooters and wheelchairs for people with temporary and permanently restricted mobility to enable improved access around the town centre.

Stan Emery, manager of Basingstoke Dial-a-Ride, said: “This money from AWE means a great deal to us. We have to replace two vehicles at a cost of £95,000 so this donation of £1,000 from AWE will go straight to that fund.

“We started in January 1985 and this year, we collected our 700,000th passenger, and we had travelled 2.9million miles.”

Anne Blackmore, manager of Basingstoke Shopmobility, added: “It is tremendous to have this continued great support from such a large company because our running costs are increasing each year, but our grants are decreasing each year.”