CRAVEN has become the second region in the country to receive a quarter of a million pounds to improve its rural transport facilities.

The Craven District Transport Partnership has been awarded the grant from the Government which set aside £4 million as part of its New Deal for Transport in 1998.

Giles Bond, Craven's transport officer, in conjunction with the partnership of 40 representatives from voluntary groups, statutory and commercial organisations, produced an action plan for Craven's isolated rural communities to secure the money.

The action plan aims to reduce social exclusion and enhance the ability of young, elderly, disabled and low income people to travel to work, school, shops and entertainment.

During his research Mr Bond said that a group in Kettlewell had said it was used to having its mobility restricted and had come to accept it as a way of life.

Other individuals and groups said that the best use was not being made of transport which was already available. Some groups had minibuses that were used infrequently and stood idle the rest of the time.

The partnership also identified the need for more volunteers to run community transport, accessible and cheaper transport, and better infrastructure at bus stops. "Quite often I hear that if people go out to get a bus, they do not know where to get it from," said Mr Bond.

The grant will be used over the next three years to expand the community transport sector which responds to individual needs.

Community transport includes car sharing schemes, dial a ride and community minibuses, as well as more specific schemes like moped hire to jobseekers.

"Lots of people do not use current community transport schemes because they think it is institutionalised. They do not want to be seen in a social services bus going to a night club, for example. We want to change that," said Mr Bond.

Much of the money will be offered in the form of grants for local transport improvements.

And individuals and organisations can bid for a share of the £10,000 set aside to fund improvements that will benefit the community.

Mr Bond has even suggested introducing a Craven Travel Card which would eliminate the expensive practice of buying more than one ticket when making a journey involving a change.

Other ideas for making transport more accessible to groups are introducing minibuses with tail-lifts, taxis with swivel seats and low floor buses.

Over the next few months Mr Bond hopes to start putting the plans into practice by approaching organisations that have minibuses and arranging to use them during the times they do not.

Secondly he wants to work with the North Yorkshire County Council to provide up to date, accurate information on bus and train times and community transport.

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