WE ARE HERE TO HELP THE COMMUNITY

 From a Happy Customer

I had the recent misfortune of breaking my arm and being the driver of the family, needed help with visits to hospital. Not wanting to impose on family or friends I gave a call to ccs to request transport. The people who assisted me were wonderful, polite courteous and very friendly. I would have had a lot more stress arranging other transportation. A big thank you for all concerned. It is an excellent service and thank the wonderful people who volunteer themselves. You have made my lack of mobility much easier best wishes to you all. ( name was supplied)

Call – 07767 063 986 if you need help with transport to a medical appointment or other needs

If you can help us please call Margaret on 01493 780126 for more information.
Your help will be appreciated by all our users.

If you need to get to a doctors appointment, to a dentist or to the J P hospital then contact us to see if we can help. As long as you can get unaided in and out of a car then we will help with transport. It will only cost you 45p a mile and in most cases the driver will wait to bring you back home.

We still need drivers. Just give an hour or so of your time to help those without a car and also who find public transport cannot meet their needs.
Please consider helping this valuable service.
Call Tel – 07767 063 986 for information

OLD NEWS

On Tuesday 18 March the Administrator/Secretary attended a Transport Forum in Gt
Yarmouth accompanied by our Chairperson and one of our Volunteer Drivers. Parish
Councils were also invited to this event. We did learn two very interesting facts.
Firstly, there are 75 community transport schemes operating in Norfolk, 49 of which are
members of the NCTA. Secondly, it is calculated the value of these schemes in
volunteer hours, using the current minimum wage hourly rate, equates to £250,000.
On Tuesday 25 March the Administrator/Secretary was visited by the Great Yarmouth
Development Officer, Norfolk Rural Community Council. Over the past two years, this
post has been funded by the Big Lottery and this funding is coming to an end on 31
March. To support a bid for further funding evidence of the liaison between the post
holder and the CCS was provided and an Evaluation Sheet completed.
If you wish to use our services or are interested in becoming a Volunteer Driver, contact
details are as below. They are also available from your Parish Council and are
advertised in the Gt Yarmouth Mercury and The Village Voice.
Tel – 07767 063 986
Email – mgreenacre532@googlemail.com

Farewell to Reg
Friends and Colleagues of the Five Villages Community Car Scheme met recently at The Cliff Hotel, Gorleston for Afternoon Tea
and to say a fond farewell to one of their drivers – Reg Richardson who is leaving Belton to return to Sussex to live near his family.

Reg joined the Car Scheme in September 2012 and soon became a popular colleague and friend to his “clients”.
Reg would always be available to take people to wherever they wanted to go. He was always, polite, friendly and extremely helpful to
users of the Scheme and everyone appreciated him enormously. He would always go “the extra mile” to ensure his “clients” were collected
on time and to take them to their destinations. He would always take people to their Clinics at the local Hospital, and wait in the Cafe
for whenever they were ready to go home. He was an absolute STAR and will be greatly missed by his colleagues and everyone who knew him.
He is a credit to himself and it was our great pleasure to have “worked” with him. We all wish him good luck and much happiness for the future.
Thank You Reg.

The Five Villages Community Car Scheme commenced serving the communities of Belton, Browston, Burgh Castle, Fritton and St Olaves in March 2011.

This voluntary run Scheme provides transport to shops, local doctors’ surgeries, dental, opticians, hospital and social appointments plus
anywhere else our clients request. The general operating area is destinations within those villages plus journeys up to a maximum of 12 miles distant.
In special circumstances and at the discretion of drivers, journeys may be undertaken outside these areas. The Scheme normally operates within the
hours of 8am – 6pm Mondays-Fridays, but again journeys can be undertaken outside these hours, at the discretion of drivers.
Residents can make requests by ringing 07767 063 986 between the above hours. There is an ansaphone facility and all calls are responded to as soon as possible.

From humble beginnings in early 2011 the Scheme is now a very professional voluntary organisation operating under the umbrella of Belton with
Browston Parish Council who provide Public Liability Insurance and with the full support of both Burgh Castle and Fritton & St Olaves Parish Councils.
The CCS has been Risk Assessed to comply with requirements. All three Parish Councils ring fence donations each year to enable the Scheme to continue
to work for the benefit of all five communities served. The Scheme continues to receive support from the Norfolk Rural Communities Council,
Age Concern and also has contact with Voluntary Norfolk.

We have joined the Norfolk Community Transport Association (NCTA). The NCTA is an independent charity and company limited by guarantee.
The Co-Ordinator reports to her board, which at the moment consists of three community transport operators and one independent person.
They are funded by Norfolk County Council and based at County Hall, but like other funded organisations they have a clear remit for what they do with
finances and the Co-Ordinator sees herself as accountable to members of the Association and not to Norfolk County Council.

Working closely with NCC means that the NCTA is able to keep on top of what the Council is doing and know where to seek help when necessary – for example
with organising free DBS (formerly CRB) checks for members. They also provide Driver Handbooks, H&S & Insurance Advice, Training & Development and HR Support.
The Chairperson and Administrator/Secretary have met with the Co-Ordinator and we are positive our membership of this Association will be advantageous to us.

Gt Yarmouth Borough Council recently requested that our Car Scheme be a Case Study and in particular, its contribution to the local community.
The Chairperson and Administrator/Secretary met with Charlotte Stannard, Gt Yarmouth Development Officer, Norfolk Rural Community Council in October and were
able to provide her with a considerable amount of evidence to meet the requirements of the Case Study and to prove our valuable contribution to the local community.

We have extended our inclusion on the Heron Website which is run by the NHS.

Our Steering Group meets regularly to discuss how best to improve our service and working practices. We have our own Bank Account and Constitution and operate
under a “Drivers’ Responsibilities” document which Volunteer Drivers are more than happy to adhere to. The Scheme currently has eleven volunteer drivers, all DBS
(formerly CRB) checked.

We have our regular “clientèle” who if not already, are becoming good friends. We are always more than happy to welcome new “passengers” and look forward to
meeting those of you who may have thought about using our services but for whatever reason, have not done so as yet. Please feel very welcome to give us a
call, we are only too willing to assist you with your transport requirements. It only costs 45p per mile.

As with all voluntary organisations we are always very happy to welcome other people who would like to join our team as drivers. If anyone is interested in
joining us, albeit for only one day a week, please contact mgreenacre532@googlemail.com for further information, thank you,

We aim to serve the local community to the best of our ability. Why not give us a call on:

The numbers of requests for drivers in November and December 2013 were 30 and 42 respectively. These are excellent results and we are pleased that residents feel confident and happy to use our services.

We did receive one enquiry from a gentleman regarding becoming a Volunteer Driver. He was sent explanatory information and also forms to complete but unfortunately he did not persue the matter further. We think it was possibly because he lived in Bradwell. We informed him that Bradwell Parish Council did not support our Scheme and consequently we did not accept requests from residents in Bradwell.

If you wish to use our services or are interested in becoming a Volunteer Driver, contact details are as below. They are also available from your Parish Council and are advertised in the Gt Yarmouth Mercury and The Village Voice.

Tel – 07767 063 986