Community minibus grant fund announced
A new £1million community minibus fund has been announced by Transport Minister Keith Brown. The one-off fund for this financial year will help community transport operators buy new vehicles to expand their services or replace older vehicles.
Mr Brown said: "This will provide much-needed financial assistance to operators who, as part of the Third Sector, run vital services for remote communities and vulnerable and disadvantaged groups."
"This is a one-off fund for now, but I expect it to provide valuable insights into the sector's needs which we can use to develop future support as finances permit."
Age Scotland Chief Executive Brian Sloan said: "We welcome this fund, which will go some way to addressing chronic under-investment in community transport in recent years. However a one-off grant pot does not represent a long-term strategy to sustain community transport and enable its development in response to an ageing population.
"The Scottish Government has so far rejected our proposal to include community transport within the national concessionary travel scheme, which we believe would represent value for money as preventative spending, and address iniquity in the current bus pass scheme. If it knows of an alternative way to secure the future of community transport in Scotland we would be happy to hear of it. However so far we're still waiting to be convinced that there's a plan to ensure the sector thrives in the long term."
The fund will be jointly administered by the Community Transport Association (CTA) and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO).
John MacDonald, the CTA's Director for Scotland, said "This is great news for community transport operators as funding of vehicles is one of their biggest concerns.
John Downie, Director of Public Affairs at the SCVO, said: "We're looking forward to seeing this funding be invested in Scotland's community transport fleet and the big difference it will make to the lives of older people, people with disabilities and people living in rural areas who don't have access to a car or public transport."
