ABOUT NWCTP Ltd PROVIDERS OF WEALDLINK

NWCTP

The North Wealden Community Transport Partnership Ltd was formed to provide the management and co-ordination of community transport services in the Wealden district of Sussex.

Community Transport & Social Exclusion

Social exclusion is recognised today as a major problem by both local and central government across the UK. Individuals or groups find themselves quite suddenly unable to do the everyday things that the majority of us take for granted.

A recent report by the Department of Transport concluded that Community and voluntary transport schemes are seen as the solution to many people's travel problems by providing an alternative to the car for those who have severely impaired mobility or live far from the public transport network.

For some 87% the most needed facility was to enable them to shop for food. Visiting the post office is the activity that is required next most often - 60% need to go at least once a week, suggesting quite high dependence on the services offered by post offices. Visiting friends and family ranked third in terms of need, with one third visiting people's homes and the same proportion meeting elsewhere at least once a week One fifth require to visit a bank or building society at least once a week and a similar proportion need non-food shopping this often. One in eight (12%) do some form of leisure activity once a week or more.

NWCTP helps fill this need by providing a safe, accessible and affordable transport solution for local communities.

Community Transport in North Wealden

In 2002 the government Rural Bus Challenge enabled the introduction of a dedicated door-to-door shopping service in North Wealden. While establishing a need, the funding was only for three years. Faced with the demise of a now popular service in 2005, a milestone agreement between six Parish Councils, Wealden District Council and the Crowborough Partnership was set up to provide sufficient funding to continue the service.

Since then the service has been contracted out, first to Brighton and Hove Community Transport and latterly with CTLA (Community Transport for Lewes Area).

In late 2006 a meeting of the six parish councils and other interested parties was held in Crowborough at which it was agreed to form a company to be known as the North Wealden Community Transport Partnership. This became a reality with an appointed board of Trustees in November 2007. Charitable status followed in August 2008.

It was always envisaged the NWCTP would acquire and operate their own vehicles as soon as funds would allow, and this became an urgent requirement in 2008 when Brighton and Hove gave notice to withdraw their services in the North Wealden area. Our replacement contract with CTLA while fortuitous, as the service was able to continue seamlessly, was however not based on the same home to school contract which enabled us to utilise buses which would otherwise be idle. The company correctly identified that prices would rise every six months and brought forward the need to identify funding which would enable the purchase and use of our own locally based vehicles.

Throughout 2010 members of the board put together a sufficiently robust Business Plan to enable us to successfully win one of eight awards from the Rural Social Enterprise Programme which enabled the purchase of our own minibus. A second, back-up vehicle arrived in early July.

Funding

Community Transport has to be funded or subsidised as with all other transport schemes.

NWCTP Ltd is grant funded by East Sussex County Council, Wealden District Council, the Crowborough Partnership and the Town and Parish Councils of: Buxted, Crowborough, Danehill, Forest Row, Hartfield, Maresfield, Withyham.

Additionally we received in 2010 a grant from the Rural Social Enterprise Programme to enable the purchase of our own vehicle, the employment of a Business Development Manager and the renting of an office from which to conduct our operations.

Further funding is now being sought to enable the purchase of another primary minibus which will enable the development of a "trip" service for local social groups for which there is already a growing demand.

As a registered Charity we are able to receive valuable tax relief on all donations and legacies.

Our present services to the community

We operate under the Transport Act 1985 section 19 and 22 permits.

As well as the daily shopper services we are able to offer a limited "trips" service for appropriate groups.

Full details of our WEALDLINK Shopping Services may be found on our "Services" page by clicking here

Full details of the WEALDLINK Crowborough Shopping Service may be found on a dedicated page by clicking here.Internal Link

Our booking service

Arrangements are in place with Forest Row Community Transport for them to operate a telephone booking service on our behalf. The service came into operation on July 1st. As a result Wealdlink now has a new telephone number to book a place on any of the daily shopper services.

Access to this service is on 01342 822909 weekdays between 9:30 & 12:30 and travel may be booked up to five days in advance. The previous CTLA number should no longer be used.

This service is operated for us by Forest Row Community Transport and is manned on Mondays Tuesdays Thursdays and Fridays with an answering machine operating on Wednesdays. NWCTP would like to express our gratitude to Forest Row Parish Council for setting up this service on our behalf.

This is also the number for Forest Row residents to get help with transport for Dental & Medical appointments

Volunteers

To fulfil our commitment to the local communities we plan to engage the help of local volunteers both as driver and to take care of the telephone.

Driving for Wealdlink enables volunteers to meet new people, make new friends and become involved with a wide range of community groups in our area. Volunteer drivers will find that they have the opportunity to travel to different parts of the county, and to visit various attractions – all expenses paid! And being part of the Scheme gives drivers the chance to play a valuable role helping others in their community.

It is required that our volunteers are CRB checked and MiDAS trained. MiDAS is the Minibus Driver Assessment Scheme, organised by the Community Transport Association U.K. (CTA) which promotes a nationally recognised standard for the assessment and training of minibus drivers. It is a membership based scheme that has been designed to enhance minibus driving standards and promote the safer operation of minibuses.