Find out more about the transport-focused charities and community groups we're supporting with financial donations through our Cost of Living initiative.
Basingstoke Neighbourcare - £3,500
Basingstoke Neighbourcare provide accompanied transport and befriending throughout the Basingstoke area. They were founded in 1997 and aim to support elderly people to remain independent for as long as possible.
We are delighted and extremely grateful to receive this Cost of Living grant enabling us to continue to provide accompanied car transport for older people with limited mobility. Our volunteer drivers enable local people to attend medical appointments, social activities and shop for everyday needs. The support of Newbury Building Society has arrived just when we need it most.
Didcot Volunteer Drivers - £2,000
Didcot Volunteer Drivers are a group of 40 volunteers who provide a personal door to door transport service, using their own cars. They help those in need in Didcot and the surrounding villages who have no other means of reaching their medical appointments.
Many of their clients have hearing difficulties, so they plan to use the funding to update their telephone system which will improve sound quality and communication.
On every weekday since 1989, especially during the pandemic, Didcot Volunteer Drivers have provided a personal transport service for the residents of Didcot and the surrounding 17 villages to their hospital, surgery and other medical appointments. We would like to put on record how proud we are of all the volunteers and those who have supported us with donations to make this small locally funded charity continue to make a difference in these changing times.
West Berkshire Volunteer Centre - £2,000
West Berkshire Volunteer Centre was established in 1974 and have been providing a range of public facing services since. The Newbury Community Car Scheme, the Newbury and Thatcham Handybus Service, Newbury Shopmobility, and the West Berkshire Volunteer recruitment service, as well as a Suicide Prevention Action Group and services to support other charities.
The funding will be used to pay for fuel for community transport schemes, which will help them to ensure contribution rates from passengers for trips to hospitals, appointments, and social trips are kept as low as possible.
Newbury Building Society has the community very much at heart just like the volunteer transport schemes who assist people to get to essential appointments of all kinds. This £2000 donation to our funds from the society will help us to maintain the low contribution rates ensuring that older less able passengers are not faced with increases in costs to attend vital services.
Keep Mobile Wokingham - £3,500
Keep Mobile help people in Wokingham who are unable to use ordinary transport due to disability or age to reach their destination. They work to ensure people throughout the area have as much of an independent life as possible.
We at Keep Mobile Community Transport CIO are extremely grateful to Newbury Building Society for their support in helping us to keep Berkshire mobile. The funds received will be put towards the cost of updating our fleet of specially adapted minibuses which provide transport to those in the Wokingham and Bracknell Forest Borough areas who are unable to use ordinary transport (due to their disability and/or age) thus giving them as much of an independent life as possible and reducing their loneliness.
To find out more about the donations we're making in the areas of debt, energy, food, and mental wellbeing, please head back to our Cost of Living hub.
Emma leads the marketing and communications team and is responsible for marketing, communications, brand and public relations.
