Fears for transport charity as driver numbers dwindle

A VOLUNTEER centre in Sonning Common which provides transport for vulnerable residents said new drivers are urgently needed if it is to continue.

The Fish Volunteer Centre in Lea Road has supported the elderly, infirm or disabled for more than 40 years.

It has 600 clients in the Sonning Common area, most of whom rely on it for transport to essential medical appointments at GP surgeries, hospitals and dentists.

The centre also provides home visits for villagers with no family locally, a monthly village tea party and a near-daily shuttle bus service to shops and nearby towns.

Mary Norris, 75, the office co-ordinator, said the organisation has reached its lowest number of drivers in memory and is seeing more transport requests left unfulfilled.

She said: “Up until the last two months I don’t think we had ever had a trip that we have had to turn down. That’s how bad it is now, that we are occasionally falling apart.

“At one stage we had something like 68 drivers and now I think we’re lucky if we’ve got 30 who are actively driving.

“People drop out for all sorts of reasons — age, ill health, moving, problems with the family, some people come for a while and then leave and come back.”

In the past year the centre has only recruited six new drivers, while 10 drivers have left, either to become clients themselves or because they have moved away.

Mrs Norris said it is normal for this many drivers, who are mostly retired, to leave the centre each year but that fewer volunteers have been coming forward in their place.

She said: “When I know people have retired, I try to snatch them up before another organisation does because every volunteer organisation is desperate.

“Eventually, if more drivers don’t come forward, then we will have to fold. If we had four more drivers, it would make all the difference to the pressure that our drivers and office volunteers are under at the moment.

“It needs to keep going, it’s very necessary. It makes life liveable and enjoyable for quite a lot of people.”

Volunteers are able to accept as many trips as they like, with no minimum requirement.

A list is emailed out to volunteers each day at noon, which they then accept according to their availability.

Drivers are reimbursed 45p per mile from when they leave their homes. Trips are free for clients, who can elect to provide a donation as they please.

Mrs Norris said: “Our clients are mostly elderly, some of them can’t see, or can’t hear properly, so drivers really need to have empathy.

“I feel so strongly about what we do because we help so many people. A lot of our volunteers say that they get as much out of it as our clients.

“It’s all about contact going and keeping them engaged with living. Some of the people who come to the tea party haven’t spoken to anybody in a week.”

Volunteer Anne Davies, 75, started driving for the centre almost eight years ago while working part-time as a receptionist at Sonning Common Health Centre.

She said: “I think people think it’s going to be too much of a tie but, actually, it’s not at all because the list comes out at lunchtime everyday and we can just pick what we we’re able to do in the following weeks and if there’s nothing to be done then that’s fine.

“I just find it so rewarding being able to help people.”

Debbie Ashford, 59, started volunteering four years ago after retiring as a police officer.

She said that with fewer drivers, it is having to let down customers who are then unable to attend important appointments.

She said: “If we had a whole bunch of volunteers and everyone did one a month then it would make such a difference, that’s one person getting to an essential medical appointment.

“We are having to let some people down now, and without the drivers, the centre won’t be here. That sounds dramatic but, ultimately, without the drivers we would cease to exist and we would be letting a lot of people down.”

Ann Richardson, 91, has used the transport service since undergoing eye surgery five years ago which left her unable to drive.

She said: “I use the centre now for everything. They take me to the dentist in Henley, or to Townlands Memorial Hospital, John Radcliffe infirmary in Oxford, where I go for my eyes, or sometimes Royal Berkshire Hospital.

“The drivers are wonderful, they help me bring my shopping in, offer to make me a tea when we get back.”

To volunteer, call the office on 0118 972 3986.