Ex-Mayor takes up cudgels on behalf of Dial-a-Ride charity

FORMER Mayor Geoff Settle is to put strongly-worded questions to the next meeting of Warrington Borough Council – on behalf of Warrington Dial-a-Ride.
He will ask the meeting, on Monday September 4, what support the council is prepared to offer the charity to move to a better location – and point out that current council policy is not helping at all.
Proposals for a waste transfer centre will leave the charity “boxed in” on its unsuitable site at Athlone Road.
He said Dial-a-Ride which is already surrounded by a cement works, a waste skip hire business and its access road.
“What support and assistance will the council offer to help move the organisation to a new location with a better environment, improved health conditions for its staff and drivers and away from corrosive cement dust and dust from the skip hire waste?”
Mr Settle – no longer a member of the council but a former vice chairman of the charity – says it is well known that Dial-a-Ride almost ceased trading just over 18 months ago.
Only the generosity of the NHS and the Bill Holdroyd Trust, who generously provided the financial backing for it to survive a critical three-month period, kept it going.
“The two benefactors reviewed, scrutinised and approved the new business model keeping the valuable life line service going for hundreds of elderly and disabled people living in Warrington, said Mr Settle.
“Dial-a-Ride has tried hard to relocate over the years and get away from the very poor location at the bottom of Athlone Road. They are currently surrounded by a cement works, a skip hire company and an access road. They now face being boxed in by a new Waste Transfer Station and its associated odours because as the council states ‘There is no doubt that waste can be smelly.’
“The consultation document, with executive board approval, doesn’t even give Dial-a-Ride a mention on the consultation map of the area and wrongly denotes it as a skip hire business.”
Mr Settle the charity has searched high and low for a new site and but had been unable to find anywhere suitable.
Either the rent was too high, the buildings were in a poor condition or the location was wrong.
Conditions at Athlone Road were so poor that the mini-buses required additional maintenance, staff health was poor and because the lease with the borough council had expired, the charity had no security of tenure.
“If the council value the Dial-a-Ride service then I believe that they need to help Dial-a-Ride relocate rather than enclose the charity within a hazardous box,” he added.