Membership for community travel service frozen after soaring demand

A COMMUNITY transport scheme has been forced to freeze new memberships for the first time in 36 years.

The decision comes after Community Action Ledbury experienced unprecedented demand for its Ring & Ride service and a shortage of a drivers, leading to appeals for more volunteers.

Community Action Ledbury's general manager, Tim Barnes, said: "It’s great we are helping more people than ever, but unfortunately we have now reached the limit of what we can manage with our current volunteers.

"Over the last three years, demand for our Ring & Ride service has been increasing by 17% per year.

"We've got an ageing population and around 50% of our journeys involve taking residents to vital hospital appointments."

Ledbury resident Judy Eaton, who has recently given up driving due to Parkinson's disease, is amongst those affected by the freeze. She said: "It’s a big blow.

"I was hoping that Ring & Ride would be able to help me get to my hospital appointments.

"I am not sure how I am going to manage now, as there is a limit to how much I can ask friends for help."

Ledbury's Ring & Ride is carrying out twice the amount of journeys that it delivered five years ago, and in 2023, its team of 45 drivers completed 4,400 journeys - a record amount since the scheme began in 1988.

Prior to the membership freeze, 80 new users had joined in 2024.

Mr Barnes added: "We will continue to transport our all our existing users, but we just can’t take on any new ones until we have more drivers.

"It's a great shame because we are having to turn people down.

Now Community Action Ledbury is appealing for new volunteer drivers so that the Ring & Ride membership can be re-opened.

Mr Barnes said: "We are looking for people with their own car who can spare a few hours a week to make a real difference to our users’ lives.

"It’s a very flexible way of volunteering and we don’t ask for a regular commitment - our volunteers can do as much or as little driving as they like."