Fort William

A FORT WILLIAM charity has welcomed a grant of £8,000 from Bank of Scotland Foundation towards its community car scheme.

Care Lochaber is one of three Highlands charities to be sharing grants totaling £27,210, awarded by the foundation in the first half of 2017.

Care Lochaber’s community car scheme works with volunteer drivers, who use their own cars to provide transport to those who have difficulty accessing public transport because of ill health, injury or mobility issues. With a population spread over a large area and a limited public transport service, travel within Lochaber is a major problem with some clients living up to 50 miles from a supermarket or major health centre.

Due to the increasing demand for the service, the grant will help cover costs of the recruitment and training of volunteers, as well as volunteer expenses and general running costs related to the project.

The organisation’s team of friendly volunteers give around 450 hours of their time each month and carry out almost 5,500 journeys over the course of a year.

Lara Van de Peer, charity manager at Care Lochaber, said: ‘We were absolutely delighted to receive this grant from Bank of Scotland Foundation as it will allow us to help elderly and immobile people across Lochaber get to the places that they need to be.’

The final tranche of the 2017 small and medium grants is now open and charities have until 12 noon on October 6 to send in their applications. The 2018 large grants programme will open early in January next year.