Wollondilly Council will ditch its own bus, which has hardly been out of the depot in the past few years, but will continue to pay for community transport.
It plans to continue to provide a community transport service for its growing and changing community, but with a different model.
It will directly fund third party providers so community groups can use the service.
This will mean eligible Wollondilly based community groups can use suitable third party transport services such as South West Community Transport (pictured above) to hire either an appropriate vehicle, or a vehicle and driver, with council footing the bill up to the value of $500 per trip.
The current bus turns 15 this year and can’t be used beyond October this year.
It has a market value of $15,500, and could actually end up in the hands of a local community group.
“Council has been approached by community groups keen on our current bus so we’ve decided to look at donating it,’’ says Wollondilly Mayor Matt Gould.
“I firmly believe that council needs to continue to provide a transport service for those community organisations within the Shire that need it, but we need to do so in a way that gets the best possible outcome for our community and makes the best use of ratepayers’ funds,’’ he said.
“Given the long term decline we have seen in the usage of the service we are currently at a point where the third party model is the best way to provide this service with the current level of interest.
“It strikes a balance between the responsible use of our ratepayers’ money while providing a service to those who need it.”
In the years immediately prior to the pandemic lockdowns the bus was only being used four or five times a month on average, and then was required to be taken off the road.
There has also been very low usage of the interim grant scheme that has been in place since July 2022, with only three uses of the service in six months.
Feedback from many historical bus user groups is that they no longer use council’s service as they now access alternative transport solutions through programs such as the NDIS that better meet their specific needs.
