THOUSANDS of elderly, frail or ill people in West Somerset won a reprieve this week when Somerset County Council announced it would not be cutting fare concessions for people using community transport schemes.

Community transport and car scheme operators were thrilled to hear that a hard fought campaign to stop the cuts, which would have affected vulnerable people in rural, isolated areas, has been successful.

“You cannot save money by hitting the most vulnerable – in the end Somerset County Council made a sensible decision, and the right decision,” said Jean Humber, secretary of the Car Scheme Partnership, an umbrella organisation for voluntary car schemes from Dulverton to Kilve.

In West Somerset, 7,000 people use community transport, a third of them over 80 and the majority frail, elderly or disabled.

They are served by 14 voluntary car schemes around the area, while Atwest also has 23 minibuses.

The services enable people who have no other access to transport, to attend hospital appointments – 90 per cent of car share journeys are for medical reasons – shop or attend leisure activities.

The council had been proposing to cut its fare concessions by half – currently registered passengers on car and bus schemes can have 50 per cent of their journeys refunded up to a maximum of £5, and this will now be maintained.

A public consultation, which ended on January 11, saw hundreds of online and other responses, including from individuals and organisations such as district, town and parish councils.