PROPOSED changes to social care transport will cause genuine concern - and must still help almost 200 people in York, a local charity has said.

City of York Council’s executive will meet next week to discuss changes to the way adult social care transport is delivered, and has been recommended to approve issuing funds to its 184 users to organise their own transport, rather than rely on the council’s fleet of accessible buses.

The council’s plan includes the eventual phasing out of the ageing fleet by 2020, which it says will save the authority £173,000 over the next three years.

Adam Myers is manager of Brunswick Organic Nursery, where people in adult social care regularly visit for activities using the current fleet, and said assistance is vital to service users.

He said: “For people who, for whatever reason, struggle to use public transport, some other provision is essential if they are going to get out and live their lives, get to services, activities, jobs or volunteering. The council’s fleet is a very thoughtful, caring and professional service, there’s no two ways about it.

“It (social care activities) is an incredibly important part of people’s lives and it’s a place where people learn new skills, produce things for sale to the public, and can see they are valued - they are learning and progressing which are things we all want in our lives, and if they couldn’t get here that would be a huge loss to them.

"Whatever provision is settled needs to allow them to access services like us.”

Mr Myers said the report before the executive was detailed and appeared to have considered the worries that changes would likely bring.

He said: “People who’ve been on transport for a long time, and who have had a lovely service from the fleet, will be concerned and worried by the change, but younger people who aren’t so used to that will be interested in other, more creative solutions.

“As long as people are supported through the change and get good and consistent support through the changes, that’s key. There are a lot of people who won’t access Brunswick if they don’t have support as they can’t use public transport for a variety of reasons.”

Mr Myers also praised the work of the York Independent Living and Travel Skills (YILTS) training, which will continue to help those affected to travel independently.

He said: “YILTS do a great job and I think that’s a very positive thing where somebody needs just a bit of training maybe over a few months, to get confidence to travel on a bus or by themselves. I think they have done a good job of supporting people to do that, so investing in that way so someone gains skills and confidence to travel is a really good thing to do.”

The executive meeting is on Thursday.