Maypole

Transport


Whenever ORCC asks communities in rural Oxfordshire what is the biggest problem facing them, the answer is nearly always ‘access to services’. RCC colleagues across the country say the same thing. Employment and education opportunities, health and social services, leisure and recreational facilities are routinely harder to access from rural areas than they are from towns.

Centralised services, coupled with the dispersed and small nature of rural communities, has left many individuals ‘high and dry’, and very vulnerable to isolation and social exclusion. In a typical year, households in settlements of fewer than 3,000 people spend twice as much on transport and travel twice as far in a car than urban households.

The usual perception is that everyone has a car nowadays, so there can’t be that much of a problem, can there? The problem is that around 3,500 households in Oxfordshire don’t have a car at all; in many more households, the ‘family’ car isn’t available during the working day. So despite the continued increase in car ownership, there is still a widespread need for public transport in rural areas. 
 
So ORCC helps to improve transport and accessibility of services by

  • Leading the Oxfordshire Community Transport & Accessibility Partnership and bringing together local authorities, NHS and other interested parties to work out ways to improve transport facilities at all levels
  • Helping communities carry out transport needs surveys and develop community transport schemes with the support of the Community Transport Adviser
The links at the side provide more information on these services.