Board adds rider to ‘Be Mobile’ plans

Press, 26 February 1986, Page 8

Board adds rider to ‘Be Mobile’ plans

The Christchurch Transport Board’s “Be Mobile” bus service for disabled persons will not be dropped until satisfactory alternative transport is available, the board decided yesterday.

The board wants the service to concentrate on transporting groups of disabled persons rather than individuals, as the service is proving too expensive to maintain.

A board member, Mrs Carole Evans, said she did not want to see the service stopped leaving dis-

abled persons with no transport. She said she did not think the taxi companies had enough taxis modified to carry disabled persons and their wheelchairs to cope with demand. "I don’t think the time is right to take drastic action and cut our service compeltely,” she said.

Mr Newton Dodge said phasing down “Be Mobile” buses would encourage the taxi companies to increase the number of modified taxis

available. However, the board should not stop its service until satisfactory alternative transport was available.

The board’s chairman, Mr Patrick Neary, said the board should work with the transport committee of the Disabled Persons’s Assembly to decide when there was sufficient alternative transport. The board could modify its services when the committee decided that point had been reached.