Melksham charity aims to raise £50k for new community bus
Melksham Area Community Transport says one of it's vehicles needs replacing due to age
A charity in Melksham is hoping to raise £50,000 for a new community bus.
Melksham Area Community Transport says it needs to replace an ageing vehicle in its fleet to ensure it can continue supporting those depending on their help.
Chairman David Hogg said the organisation provides services on routes that aren't covered by public or commercial enterprises.
"We take the elderly shopping, we pick them up door to door on our wheelchair accessible bus, which also has room for shopping trolleys. We also take them to their social clubs. So quite often, that's the only social interaction that these elderly people enjoy," he said, adding that they also use the buses to take children to and from school in Corsham, to swimming lessons or on day trips to the coast.
He said the charity's motivation is to "continue to do that for as long as possible", adding: "There are a lot of lonely older people, in fact, a lot of lonely younger people as well, but particularly the elderly, who rely on us to take them shopping and also to their social clubs, you know, to relieve their isolation or their feeling of isolation."
The hope is replace a bus that is now 20 years old, which was purchased through a grant because of a landfill site in Melksham.
"We're not actually looking to buy a new bus, which would cost probably 100 or 120,000," David said. "We're looking for a good second-hand bus with at least another sort of 15 years of life, and we think we can get one of those for about 50,000."
But, he admitted that finding that money themselves is tough to do.
"We're a non-profit charity, so we can't charge exorbitant fees, but we are allowed to make enough to cover our costs.
but actually to squirrel away enough to replace a bus is a bit of a challenge. So we rely on philanthropic organisations to support us," he explained.
He revealed that they had receive £10,000 from the Friends of Melksham Hospital, which gives the appeal a strong start and there are local fundraising events taking place, with the Melksham Music and Drama Group planning one such event.
The charity has also started a GoFundMe page in the hope that people will recognise the importance of their work and support the organisation. The fundraising page can be found here.
Donations can also be made at the Melksham Tourist Information Centre on Church Street.