People relying on Vale Council’s accessible transport service are being left in doubt as to whether or not they’ll be picked up, a councillor has claimed.
Cllr Christine Cave, a fomer Mayor of the Vale, called for an update report on Greenlinks, saying that a number of things had gone "drastically astray with this service."
Greenlinks is a run by the county council for residents who have difficulty accessing public transport. Older people and disabled people who live in the rural Vale are particularly reliant on it.
The service has been called into question over a number of issues in the past, including sending service users with larger than expected bills due to an invoicing backlog and not having a dedicated council officer leading on the scheme for three years.
In an update on Greenlinks, scrutiny committee members heard how there is now a dedicated officer for the service and that work has been done to rectify payment issues.
However, Cllr Cave, who represents Llandow, said she still had concerns.
She added: “While there wasn’t someone in post, my understanding was that people would ring up and they wouldn’t get their messages answered."
“That has changed and they can ring up now and book the service in a better way than before, but I am still told that they are left in doubt as to whether the bus will actually collect them or not and they often don’t know whether they are going to be able to make their journey until they actually see the bus arrive.”
In response to Cllr Cave, Operational manager for transport services, Kyle Phillips, said: "Everyone is called or should be called."
“The first people we call are the people who we are not going to provide transport for to let them know that they are not getting transport and then we call the people who we are going to be providing transport for."
“If there are any issues out there…I can obviously chase that up with the team because if that is not happening it does need to be happening. I will make sure that does get sorted.”
Greenlinks has seven vehicles which are driven by volunteers. Membership to the service has increased, with 181 new users having signed up since March 2023.
The total number of individual members currently stands at 2,073. The service facilitated 4,870 journey in 2023/24, which is less than half of the journeys undertaken before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last February, it was reported that a number of Green Links passengers received yearly invoices for the service after a backlog occurred.
One local councillor said at the time that they were aware of a resident who received a bill for more than £500.
Cllr Cave, a Welsh Conservative, said: “For them to be expected to pay hundreds and hundreds of pounds for a service that they should be able to pay [for] at point of use is completely unacceptable.”
She also criticised the council for not having a dedicated officer for the service.
Mr Phillips said: "It hasn’t meant nothing’s been done. Between the team it…just had to be managed as opposed to proactively managed and that has left a void for a number of years, but I am pleased to say that we have now got someone in that post as of May 2024."
The council officer said payments were a “major issue” after the Covid-19 pandemic.
He added: “We did speak to the majority of customers, we have set up payment plans to make sure that they can make the payments and cash handling has then been reintroduced in 2024."
“It is one of our missions to start taking card payments on the vehicles as well.”
Vale of Glamorgan Council is currently looking for volunteer drivers. For more information on this, visit the council’s website or contact greenlinks@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk.
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