Community transport scheme hit by rising fuel cost

Staff with a community transport service fear it may have to be scaled back, if fuel prices continue to rise.

Phil Ryan runs the ring and ride service for the Mayfair Community Centre in Church Stretton, Shropshire, and said the cost of refuelling his vehicles had risen from £100 to £130 since the United States and Israel launched their attacks on Iran.

The scheme supports about 300 people who struggle to get around otherwise and ran up to 13,000 services a year, he said.

Ryan added that he did not want to raise prices or reduce services and hoped the fuel-price situation would improve soon but admitted "it doesn't look very promising".

Despite the current ceasefire in the Middle East, the price of fuel continued to rise on Monday following President Trump's threat to impose a blockade of Iranian ports on the Strait of Hormuz.

Ryan said his bus service took people to "much needed medical appointments, social appointments or services at places like the Mayfair Centre".

He described it as a "vital service" for people who were vulnerable.

The bus service, run as a charity, had been struggling with rising costs before the Iran crisis began, he said, and the recent fuel price rises were "depleting much-needed reserves".

Ryan said he was reluctant to pass on the rising costs to his members, because they were "feeling the pinch themselves".

But while he accepted he "might need to think about scaling back," he said the service was "not at that point yet".

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