A COVETED King’s Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS) was formally presented on Wednesday (May 20) to Exmoor Community Bus Association.

The Lord Lieutenant of Somerset Mohammed Saddiq attended Dulverton Town Hall to present the award, which is equivalent to an MBE for individuals.

It is the highest award which can be given to voluntary groups in the UK, celebrating outstanding work done by charities.

Sixty people attended the presentation ceremony, including family members of the late Exmoor Rotary Club members who set up the community bus organisation in 1981, representatives of Somerset Council, which provides the minibus, and local groups which book the bus for their members, together with some of the regular passengers and past and current volunteer drivers.

Deputy Lord Lieutenants Sheila Wheeler and Ian Kelham also attended, plus West Somerset MP Rachel Gilmour.

Mr Saddiq mentioned in his speech how he had now had the opportunity to come to Dulverton Town Hall twice in one year after previously presenting the KAVS to Exmoor Young Voices, which was ‘as unlikely as winning the lottery’.

The community bus association was announced last November as a recipient of the KAVS but had to wait until now to formally receive the honour.

The association dates to 1981, when the late David Hunt, along with the late Frank Pooley, who were both members of the local Exmoor Rotary Club, realised that it was important to help residents of villages with no public transport service to stay independent in their homes.

The then-Somerset County Council agreed that one of its 16-seater minibuses used to transport children from across Exmoor to the middle and first schools in Dulverton could be used after its morning trip and after the bus returned to the town in the late afternoon.

A weekly scheduled service was established from Dulverton to Minehead which continues to this day, providing an important opportunity for residents of villages without any public transport service, such as Brompton Regis, Upton, and Skilgate, to travel to appointments such as opticians, visit friends, or do their weekly shop in one of the larger supermarkets.

However, the short amount of time available between the school runs curtailed the distance which could be travelled, and eventually the Exmoor Community Bus Association was provided with its own 16-seater minibus.

Local groups book trips for members to open gardens, theatres, and local events.

Currently, the association has 13 volunteer drivers.

The volunteers are sent a list of the diary dates required for all trips and they commit to drive for certain journeys.

Volunteers average driving at least two trips per month.

Information for anybody interested in becoming a volunteer driver, or for those who want to book the minibus, can be obtained by calling Jan Ross on 01398 323818 or emailing her at [email protected].

Two of the association’s members, chairman and volunteer driver Pauline Newton and volunteer driver Richard Partington, have also recently attended a Buckingham Palace Garden Party as KAVS invitees where King Charles and Queen Camilla were present.