Community transport volunteers and staff honoured
Dedicated volunteers and staff who are the driving force behind Devon’s Community Transport schemes were honoured at a special ceremony on Thursday 11 June.
As part of Community Transport Awareness Week, Devon County Council held its 16th annual Community Transport Awards ceremony at County Hall. The ceremony, which is sponsored by GM Coachwork who specialise in wheelchair access vehicles and vehicle adaptations, recognises outstanding contributions within the community transport sector.
Winner of the Community Transport Volunteer of the Year was Steve Brownridge of TRIP CTA, Honiton. He was recognised for all his hard work in seeing to the “extras” at TRIP as well as helping with advice and daily management of the organisation. Steve is a very active committee member, organising events such as the Passenger Club Christmas lunch for 80 people, a Variety Show and an Antiques Valuation Day. He also developed the concept of TRIP’s weekends and holidays for passengers, going to places such as Falmouth, Jersey and the Isle of Wight. Steve is known for having an eye for perfection and always being cheerful and willing to help.
Volunteer awards were also presented to Frances Edwards, of Volunteering in Health in Teignmouth, Andrew Reid, of Okehampton Community Transport Group, Elizabeth Robinson and Les Slade, both of Holsworthy Rural Community Transport, and Derek Smith, of TRIP CTA in Honiton.
John Adcock, of East Teignbridge CTA, Dawlish, collected the Outstanding Lifetime Contribution award. John has been involved with providing transport for 31 years in Dawlish. He has raised a huge amount of money over the years in order to buy accessible minibuses for the scheme and also to buy mobility scooters for Shopmobility in Dawlish. John volunteers seven days a week most weeks, driving Monday to Friday, delivering scooters and wheelchairs on Saturdays and taking people to church on Sundays. He is often found driving people to early morning hospital appointments and also taking people to theatre shows in the evening.
Paid staff were also recognised for their work, with Allan Day of Ilfracombe CTA named Employee of the Year. Allan was praised not only for being a highly skilled and dedicated driver but also for contributing to building up services from one Ring & Ride minibus, to a range of services with five vehicles. He co-ordinates drivers, making sure that all training is up to date, ensures all of the vehicles are up-to-date with inspections and servicing, and ensures that services are run efficiently. Allan’s attitude is always “can and will do”.
Tiverton CTA received the award for Best Contribution to the Local Community. The organisation took on a mammoth task during the last year by taking on the work of Crediton CTA when that scheme went into liquidation. The work came with many upheavals and stressful days but the public where none the wiser, as the Crediton scheme closed its door on Friday afternoon and Tiverton CTA began running the services on the following Monday morning. Going through all of this change has been a huge learning process but Tiverton CTA took it all in and kept thriving.
Councillor Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Highway Management, said: “Our congratulations and thanks go to the winners and everyone involved with community transport in Devon, who make it the successful service that it is. This annual award ceremony is a celebration of Community Transport and it illustrates the positive work within our communities. As always, we received lots of nominations and the dedication and commitment shown across Devon demonstrates what an important and highly valued service this is.”
All nominations were considered by a judging panel consisting of Devon County Councillor Stuart Hughes, Elaine Cook, Chief Executive of Devon Communities Together, and Alison Holder, Patient Advice and Service Liaison (PALS) Manager for N.E.W. Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
