Horizons looks into bungle that stranded 86-year-old

Horizons Regional Council is looking into the performance of its Levin mobility scheme contractor after a bungled booking by the taxi company caused an elderly woman to miss her partner’s funeral.

Elsie Holloway, 86, missed the funeral of her partner Peter Stout because the mobility van booked through Taxis Direct Levin didn’t turn up.

Holloway is frail and depends on the mobility van service subsidised by Horizons to get to important events.

Her daughter Jill Hall called for Horizons to review the mobility scheme contractor’s performance and procedures.

Taxis Direct offers subsided fares for its wheelchair accessible mobility van through Horizons’ Total Mobility scheme.

Hall said people such as her mum depended on the service.

But she and Holloway were left stranded and heartbroken outside her mother’s rest home, only receiving a ‘‘grudging apology’’ three weeks later.

Council chairwoman Rachel Keedwell said officials would be in touch with Taxis Direct to make sure similar mistakes were not repeated. They’ll also contact Holloway’s family.

‘‘We do expect that passengers using our subsidy get good service. Quite clearly in this case, the service was very poor indeed and I feel for Elsie and what she was put through.’’

Keedwell said the council would do what it could to ensure Taxis Direct tightened up its operations and reliably provided the expected level of service.