Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Fears disabled will lose out amid minibus review
Darryl Guthrie’s comments come after an email was circulated by the council’s neighbourhood services department outlining the findings of a review of the use of minibuses.
The email detailed plans to reduce the fleet from seven vehicles to two — and reveals that the two new minibuses will not have the capacity to carry disabled passengers.
Darryl, who works for Uppertunity which provides support for vulnerable people, today slammed the decision — and claimed groups like his own will be impacted by new services not being accessible to disabled people.
Darryl, 33, who lives in the East End of the city, said: “I understand that the council needs to look for best value but I feel this severe reduction of the community service excludes a whole section of our population from accessing a community asset.
“I think this is a mistake which lacks foresight for a city with an ageing population.
“It is just plain wrong. If this service was promoted effectively, it would be such a great asset for some of our most isolated communities.”
Darryl said he had recently trained on a Scottish Government course to enable him to drive — and then train others to drive — minibuses for Uppertunity.
He added: “It seems like the policies of the government and the council are at odds.”
The email said: “Following a full review of the utilisation of minibuses by Dundee City Council, it has been determined that two minibuses are sufficient for our needs.
“Based on these findings, we are now looking to replace these current vehicles with t wo new 12-seat minibuses from April 2017. Three of the five bus MOTs are out in February and March.
“They will cease to be operational and will be put to auction when this occurs.
“The two remaining buses (one at Kirkton and one at Finmill) will remain in service until the new buses are operational.
“When this takes place, these two remaining buses will also go to auction.
“The new buses will be based centrally, both north and south of the Kingsway, one at Kirkton Community Centre and the other at Mitchell Street Centre.
“Please note that we also looked at the disabled usage of the existing fleet and this was extremely low, therefore neither of the two new buses will have a disabled capacity.”
A COMMUNITY worker has hit out at plans to reduce the council’s minibus fleet — which would leave the service without disabled access.