Whats
happening at TRIP
Things
continue to be busy in the office with increasing
demand for all of our disabled transport and services
for the older person & the rurally isolated of
any age.
TRIP
is looking to offer a whole new range of services
for people in the area- more news coming soon.
Developments
and dreams for 2011.
Meeting
room now available for local groups and clubs to use
at a nominal charge.
New
minibus now on order- this will enable us to further
expand our range of services and destinations.
Fancy
a weekend away? We are considering offering some longer
trips away, departing on a Friday morning and staying
away until Sunday afternoon. If you are interested
in this then please contact the office- we would also
welcome suggestions for places to visit.
Befriending
Project for the Honiton area: One of our new projects
is now in its early stages.We have now set up a management
group, have recruited some volunteers and are about
to commence their training (thanks to EDVSA for their
help with that). We are hoping that the actual service
will be in place and helping people within the community
within the next month- please contact us if you need
help or have time to volunteer as a befriender- no
major time commitment is required.
Lunch
Club: our Stage 2 plan- our aim (once the befriending
project is up and running) is to develop a coffee
club or lunch club centred on Honiton to give additional
support for people using our befriending service and
giving social opportunities for any isolated people
in the area.
Centre:
the third stage of the plan is to try to open and
operate a centre for all sorts of community activities
and classes. This is an ambition that could take several
years to establish- funding being a major issue plus
finding a suitable venue. Once operating we hope to
also work with village halls through the area to take
people from Honiton out there and bring people in
to town as well.
Ring
& Ride expansion: We are launching a major fund
raising effort to acquire a new minibus- we currently
have raised over £21000 towards the £46,000
target and have committed to cover some of the outstanding
amount from our reserves. The aim is to then run 3
minibuses on a regular basis with a fourth vehicle
as breakdown and emergency cover plus covering busy
periods. We currently run 3 vehicles and are often
struggling to cope with demand for group hire for
days out.
Fund
Raising- the above projects both need substantial
efforts towards funding. Local donations have continued
to be made and we are applying to local & national
funding groups to enable the projects to take place.
We are also holding local events to help raise funds
and awareness of services offered. We are holding
a horse race night in November 2011- more details
avaliable soon.
2010
saw record demand for our Voluntary Car Services with
Honiton reaching levels not matched for 7 years and
Seaton reaching the highest figures in its history.
December
2010 saw entertaining times for all our services with
the bad weather causing difficulties for our buses
and voluntary car drivers. Some services and appointments
had to be cancelled and buses dug out from the snow.
The
Ring & Ride ran an extra service between Christmas
& New Year in response to the demand- many people
hadn't been able to get out before Christmas due to
the snow so were running low on supplies so TRIP sprang
(or slid) to the rescue.
The
Community minibuses have been very busy over the summer,
enabling many local groups of people to get out and
enjoy what sunshine we had.
Demand
continues to grow for transport to health appointments,
both within the local area and for journeys elsewhere.
Autumn 2010 saw the busiest month on record for the
Seaton service, and both Honiton & Seaton user
numbers are up on 2009.
Sales
of aids for daily living continue to grow rapidly.
We have expanded the range of items in stock (the
office is now even more crowded) and more locals are
able to resolve problems without having to travel
out of town.
Honiton
Ring & Ride is 20 this year!!! TRIP will be taking
part in the Charter day Celebrations and linking this
with our 20th Anniversary, come along, see the display
and take part in our competition on 24th July on the
All Hallows Field.
March
2010 brought a new Ring & Ride Community Bus to
serve in Honiton & East Devon. The 5 year old
vehicle will be used instead of the current 13 year
old second bus to offer a more comfortable and user
friendly service to our users. The newer vehicle has
been funded through local contributions and donations,
including substantial help from the Honiton Hospital
League of Friends. All our vehicles are available
for eligible groups to hire when they are not in use
on Ring & Ride duties. The older vehicle will
be used as a reserve bus and help out when when need
the extra capacity.
Pictured
left is a local group taking advantage of one of our
Community buses for an outing to the Motor Museum.
January
2010 Snow in the area caused some journeys to be cancelled
but we were able to run trips on some days. The Wednesday
Dunkeswell trip caused some minor problems but at
least we got people out- for some people it was the
first time in two weeks!
OLD
NEWS.....
Fashion
Show was a great success- a good time was had by all
on the 1st of December when over 100 people attended
the show held at the Macarnes Hall. Over £800
was raised towards our funds.
September
and October 2009- busiest months ever for Seaton Voluntary
Car Service!
November
2009: Extra donations received towards our fundraising
efforts towards updating our older Mercedes Ring &
Ride minibus- still have a way to go though...
Important
changes working well for the Ring & Ride:
From
February 2009 TRIP has used its own vehicles to provide
Ring & Ride services in our area. The benefits
are being felt with a substantial reduction in running
costs and vehicles that are more pleasant to drive.
They are also more readily available to local community
groups for their own use.
Seaton
Accessible vehicle getting busier. The new vehicle
is available to frail, elderly and disabled people
throughout the area covering Axminster, Colyton, Lyme
Regis, Seaton and the areas between. For more information
please look at the Seaton
Disabled Transport page.
For
pictures of recent outings
click here.
Feb
2009 Snow caused the Ring
& Ride bus to get caught up in traffic problems-
The
February 2009 snowstorms ended up giving a party of
people from Awliscombe some problems when they were
caught up in the road closures on the A38 when returning
from an evening trip to Plymouth. After sitting in
the queues for a while they were diverted via Teignmouth
and Dawlish and eventually reached home around 3.00am.
To the left is a picture of the bus outside Teignmouth
Tesco- who kindly let the passengers use their facilities.
April
2009: Our fund raising campaign to update our older
minibus received a major boost in April with a substantial
donation towards our £45000 target.
Sunday
19th April saw the weather co-operating for our trip
to Lanhydrock. Two minibuses arrived for 11.30 and
everyone enjoyed the beautiful gardens and house.
To see more pictures of the day out click
here
Skittles
Night on 25th April: over 30 people turned up to take
part in the evening. Highest scorer on the night was
Paul Gadd who won the event AND the play-off. Over
£150 was raised towards TRIP funds. Many thanks
to all the businesses in Honiton who helped us by
donating prizes for the draw.
June
24th 2009 saw even larger numbers than last year attend
our AGM, we had many of our volunteers attending as
well as representatives from Devon County Council,
Honiton Town Council, Help the Aged, Honiton Hospital
and members of the public.
Saturday
19th September saw the Bingo night take place- a reasonable
number of people enjoyed the evening and asked for
more to be arranged- see below for dates.
2
buses now scheduled for the trip to Bath Christmas
Market on 29th November.
In
September 2009 the Seaton Voluntary Car Service saw
its busiest month ever and demand continues to grow.
Honiton Voluntary Cars Service also is very busy with
general demand and coping with the seasonal rush for
flu jabs. Lyme Regis Volunteers are coping with demand
but have already provided more journeys in 2009 than
last year- numbers have almost doubled!
Forthcoming
Events:
New
Ring & Ride journey lists for local trips and
weekend passenger club journeys now available- Ring
the TRIP office to get your copy if not already received.
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