Winchester civic chiefs support for southern parishes transport scheme (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Winchester civic chiefs support for southern parishes transport scheme

4:33pm Wednesday 19th September 2012 in Winchester

WINCHESTER City Council has backed a rural community transport scheme with a £10,000 grant.

The cash will help set up the Southwick Community Transport scheme, a community taxi service.

It is designed to make up for a lack of public transport and help residents make vital trips such as hospital visits, weekly shopping trips or students getting .

The additional funding will allow the three-year scheme, set up by Southwick Parish Council and the county council, to service residents of Southwick, North Boarhunt, Wickham and parts of Cosham.

It has already received £36,000 funding from the county council and £4,500 from affected parish councils.

Cllr Victoria Weston, portfolio holder for transport, said: “This is a scheme that is the result of much work by the whole community to replace a lost bus service. It reflects the approach the county council has had to enable locals to provide their own transport.

“This scheme offers a good opportunity for a relatively small one-off contribution to help a residents in a very wide area maintain an important service.”

Leader of the council Keith Wood added: “Public transport is particularly important in rural areas. I will be interested to see how effective this pilot scheme is and if it’s something we can spread across a wider area.”