West Midlands council tax payers have paid £12.1 million towards the cost of running Ring and Ride this year but the service will now have to find £900,000 because of planned cuts to the service.
There may be a seven per cent cut in grant due the financial pressures on the seven West Midlands district councils following cuts to their funding by the government over the next three years, plus dramatic cost increases in items like fuel due to the governments policies.
West Midlands Special Needs Transport bosses, (the charity which provides the service), and transport authority Centro, which funds Ring and Ride on behalf of the district councils, are now asking residents in areas like Oscott who use the door-to-door transport service to help decide how to make those savings.
More than 30,000 Ring and Ride users Across the West Midlands are being sent a questionnaire asking them to vote for one of two options:
+ Making an eight per cent reduction in the number of trips being run which could see the withdrawal of some services in the evenings and/or other times of the day.
+ Introducing charges in the form of either:
An annual membership fee of £36 – the equivalent of 69p a week or
A single trip fare of 60p (£1.20 for a return trip)
So it is make your mind up time its cuts which ever way you look at it and areas like Oscott where there are a lot of elderly residents will feel the brunt of it, however please fill out your form and send it back
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