Community Transport Glasgow is supporting a number of causes across Greater Glasgow after adapting quickly to provide essential services to those in need during the coronavirus outbreak.
Thanks to funding from our Green Economy Fund earlier this year, the charity introduced five brand new 100% electric minibuses and two fully electric people carriers, which replaced ageing diesel vehicles that put its vital community work in jeopardy as they had become increasingly unreliable.
Now, the new electric vehicles are offering lifeline services to people across the West Coast including vital transport for hospital patients and NHS staff who need to access Stobhill Hospital, as well as providing support for patient and non-patient transport at Hairmyres Hospital. The charity is also assisting NHS Lanarkshire with its transport co-ordination through its Transport Hub.
In addition to offering co-ordination and transport to and from hospitals, Community Transport Glasgow is also providing help to other local community groups. This includes providing free transport for care home workers and working in partnership with a number of local community groups to assist them with their transport deliveries using the new electric minibuses, as well as lending an older vehicle free of charge to the Tannahill Centre in Ferguslie Park in Paisley to deliver food to the local community.
Ellyn Gwaradzimba, a care worker who is using Community Transport Glasgow to get to her work at a care home said: “I don’t know how I would have got to work at this time without access to CTG's transport. The new electric buses are beautiful and much better than diesel ones. It’s also great to know that while I am able to get to work at this crucial time, I am doing it in a Covid-secure and environmentally friendly way that helps all of us. The team and drivers at Community Transport Glasgow couldn’t be more helpful.”
Marjorie Kerr, from COJAC who uses Community Transport Glasgow’s services in Castlemilk, said: “CTG providing their transport to assist us to deliver care packages to our members in Castlemilk has been great as we were struggling to get the necessary transport resources to enable us to do these deliveries. The new electric buses are beautiful and much more reliable than the old diesel ones. The team and drivers at Community Transport Glasgow couldn’t be more helpful.”
Community Transport Glasgow has also responded to the needs of people in Drumchapel affected by commercial bus service cancellations by providing a community bus service to allow vulnerable people access to grocery shops and chemists during this challenging time.
Community Transport Glasgow is appealing for donations to allow it to help even more people across Greater Glasgow and the surrounding communities. Those able to donate can visit its crowdfunding page at: Crowdfunder - Coronavirus Transport Solutions
Frank Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer of SP Energy Networks, said: “Community Transport Glasgow is doing outstanding work across Glasgow and surrounding areas to ensure NHS workers and patients have the vital transport services they need. We’re proud the funding from our Green Economy Fund has allowed the charity to provide essential support for those working on the front line and those who are most vulnerable at this time.”
Graham Dunn, Manager at Community Transport Glasgow said: “It’s incredible how the community and Third Sector, local businesses and people across Glasgow have worked together to get this support in place so quickly. We’re doing everything we can to ensure that Covid-secure services are in place for those who need them most and we’ve been overwhelmed by the generosity of our supporters. With the funding from SP Energy Networks’ Green Economy Fund we have been able to expand our services and help even more people at this time of need.”
The community transport minibuses funded by the Green Economy Fund were a first for Glasgow, as the vehicles are fully electric and low floor accessible – which ensures the fleet can provide transport solutions to assist vulnerable communities throughout Glasgow whilst helping to improve air quality in the city.
Graham Johnston, Head of Planning & Development, NHS Lanarkshire said: “We’re extremely grateful to Community Transport Glasgow for offering additional and safe transport options at this time and to SP Energy Networks for providing the funding for the electric vehicles to help make it happen. This assistance has ensured that we are in a position to provide both patient and non-patient transport at this vital time and I can’t express enough how much this has helped maintain services to our local communities.”
Teams of SP Energy Networks engineers are working hard across the UK to keep the power flowing to the 3.5 million households who are depending on their electricity supply throughout the coronavirus crisis.
The electricity distributor has introduced special measures to protect the energy supply for critical national infrastructure and public service sites such as hospitals, nursing homes, food supply chain businesses and Ministry of Defence sites.
People who have received a letter from the NHS advising them that they are ‘at risk’ and should take additional measures to protect themselves from Covid-19 are being advised to sign up for SP Energy Networks’ Priority Services Register. This provides free additional services to customers in vulnerable circumstances if there is an unexpected power cut. They should sign up at spenergynetworks.co.uk or text PSR to 61999.
In the event of a power cut, customers should call the national 105 hotline no matter who they pay their bill to. Read more about how SP Energy Networks is responding to Covid-19.