A CHARITY formed earlier this year to provide more community transport for Tenbury and the surrounding area is renewing its appeal for people to dip into their pockets to support the initiative.

Teme Wheels is Worcestershire’s newest community transport service and top of their to-do list is to provide the cleanest, greenest service possible and they want your help.

The charity has launched a crowdfunding campaign to purchase an all-electric vehicle which will come fully equipped with wheelchair capabilities. Teme Wheels need to raise half of the £40,000 price tag themselves with the other £20,000 coming from the Spacehive local funding platform.

The Charity’s Chairman John Driver said that moving to electric would make an important contribution to green transport and cutting carbon emissions as desired by the Government.

“Making the transition to all-electric transport will both protect our rural environment and enable access to health and other essential services,”

“If realised, Teme Wheels would be the first transport service of its kind in the area to be running a fully electric vehicle and well ahead of the government’s current targets for cutting carbon emissions.

“Established in March this year, the charity was born to provide transport to those who are isolated and vulnerable in Tenbury Wells and the surrounding county border areas. Teme Wheels have already recruited a team of dedicated volunteer drivers who provide a door-to-door service to those in need of assistance and offer a variety of daily trips.”

There is grant funding available but this will only match money that is raised locally.

It is hoped that enough money can be raised to make an application possible by the end of June.

However, there can be an extension but Mr Driver has said that he would only do this if there was sufficient local support.

If the new group is able to move to electric vehicles then it will be pioneering and a new move for community transport.

One of the issues that will need to be resolved is that if there is an electric bus running services there will need to be a dedicated charging point.

It is hoped that a service could link the three counties, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire.

But one of the limitations with electric vehicles is the range that is restricted to about 150 miles and this could be a problem in a large isolated rural area if charging points are not available.