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Latest News

COVID-19 UPDATE JANUARY 2021

During the latest lockdown Ashbourne Community Transport will continue to provide the following essential door-to-door services and our office will be open 0800-1700h daily.

Work, Healthcare and Shopping

Derbyshire Connect local service for villages between Wirksworth and Ashbourne

Moorlands Connect local service for Staffordshire Moorlands residents linking villages with Leek, Ashbourne and Buxton

And for connections with scheduled bus and train services.

Call 01335 342951 or email bookings@moorlandsconnect.co.uk or bookings@derbyshireconnect.org.uk

Essential Shopping

Derbyshire Connect Shopping buses, supported by Derbyshire County Council, will continue to provide a weekly service for essential shopping from all villages across West Derbyshire – call 01335 300670 for information or to book

ACT will also continue to provide regular shopping runs in East Staffordshire – in and to Uttoxeter and Burton – for those with no other means of accessible transport

Hospital and GP Appointments including Covid-19 Vaccination appointments

Call 01335 300670 or email enquiries@ashbournect.org.uk for information or booking. Please give as much notice as possible in order to ensure that we can meet your appointment times

Prescription Collection

In partnership with local dispensaries and GP services. Call 01335 300670 or email enquiries@ashbournect.org.uk. Prescriptions can be collected and delivered daily.

For you safety Since the start of the pandemic we have adopted a high standard of regular bus sanitisation using the recognised X-mist sanitisation system. This process along with other safety measures will be continued.

Please call us on 01335 300670 if you need advice about any of these services or any other journeys.

Take care and stay safe

The ACT Team

Xmas Cheer Raffle News

We would like to give a special thanks to those businesses and individuals throughout our operational area who donated raffle prizes this year.

John Preston Home

Fresh Choice Ashbourne

Marks Butchers Ashbourne

Nigels Butchers Ashbourne

Natural Choice Ashbourne

M&S Ashbourne and Matlock

Britannia Taxis Glossop

David Neil Ashbourne

Meynall Langley Garden Centre, Kirk Langley

Wyaston Garden Centre

Tesco Glossop

Aldi Glossop

Members of the Board of Trustees and Staff of Ashbourne CT, especially Donna, Becky, Claire, Megan, Andy, Des and Dave.

In total 30 prizes went into the draw. This year in recognition of the challenging year many of our regular passengers have faced, the Raffle has been dedicated to these passengers. The Raffle was drawn by Trustee Arthur Watts on 29 December 2020 and the prizes will be delivered to the lucky winners over the next few days.

LOCKDOWN UPDATE NOV 2020

With the support of Derbyshire and Staffordshire County Councils our services are running throughout the 2nd lockdown (5 November – 2 December) for essential journeys. You can still travel for work, food shopping and healthcare and hospital appointments.

We can also help those who might be self isolating, or unable to use other forms of transport, with:

the collection of prescriptions from GP surgeries (we have special arrangements with Clifton Road, Ashbourne Medical Centre and Brailsford & Hulland Ward) or Pharmacies such as Boots and Lloyds
essential food deliveries to your home, including from the Ashbourne Traders’ Group and other Local Groups

Please get in touch if you would like to know more about our services or to book a journey. Call 01335 300670 or email enquiries@ashbournect.org.uk

For Your safety when travelling, we:

ensure strict social distancing measures on all journeys. All buses have reduced passenger capacity and carry a maximum of 3, 5, 7 or 8 passengers depending on size
have hand sanitising points on all vehicles and ask all passengers to sanitise their hands at the start of their journey
provide all drivers with PPE (including face masks and vizors), personal hand sanitising equipment and suitable breaks for regular handwashing
undertake regular vehicle cleaning and sanitising using a sanitising product called X-Mist, which is a fully tested, approved and certified disinfecting mist that diffuses throughout an enclosed space, destroying viruses (including Corona virus) and bacteria.

While manufacturers guidance indicates that the mist remains active for up to 28 days after use, ACT applies an X-mist deep clean at least every 7 days or more frequently depending on passenger numbers.

enforce the wearing of face masks for passengers and drivers on all scheduled journeys. However, we are aware that some of our passengers cannot wear face coverings due to health issues and we will take other measures such as greater social distancing to accommodate this.

Please note that Government guidance recognises that face coverings can cause problems if worn for long periods at work and therefore does not require bus drivers to wear masks at any time. So, you may see drivers without masks when no passengers are on Board.

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Funding News - October 2020

Osmaston History Group

A donation of £508 has been received from the Osmaston History Group.

Woodroffe Benson Trust

A donation of £400 has been received from the Woodroffe Benson Trust.

Thank you, these donations will help us continue with all the Charity’s work.

ACT Service Update - July 2020

Still operating for the benefit of the whole community

Thank you to the passengers and local councils and our dedicated driver team who volunteered to become key workers: all have supported us, allowing us to keep our essential services running during a few very difficult months. We are pleased to say that our passenger numbers are now increasing again.

We still continue to provide all our essential services, including;
- Collection of prescriptions from local GP surgeries
- Weekly Shopping Buses
- Individual trips to health appointments at GP surgeries and Hospitals
- On demand travel where public transport can’t be accessed

We want all our passengers to know that they can feel safe when they travel with us, here are some details of the current measures we are taking;

Strict social distancing measures have been implemented on all our services which means reduced passenger capacity on all buses. Most of our buses can now carry up to 8 passengers, we have removed some seats to ensure social distancing for all passengers whilst travelling.
We are asking our passengers to wear face masks when travelling with us. However, we do understand that this isn’t possible for some passengers due to health issues - please remember this if you see passengers without a mask.
All of vehicles have hand sanitising points and we ask all passengers to sanitise their hands at the start of their journey.
All drivers have essential PPE and are asked to wear face masks at all times when carrying passengers.
Each vehicle is protected by using a sanitising product called X-Mist which is is fully tested, approved and certified to kill Coronavirus. X-Mist is a disinfecting mist that diffuses throughout an enclosed space, killing viruses and destroying bacteria. While it remains active for up to 28 days after use, ACT applies an X-mist deep clean at least every 7 days or more frequently depending on passenger numbers.

Please get in touch if you would like to know more about our services.

To find out more, book a journey, or offer support, call 01335 300670 or email enquiries@ashbournect.org.uk.

Important Service Update - March 2020

In the current emergency Ashbourne Community Transport are supporting Local Councils with the continuing provision of Local Bus services, transport for key and essential workers and their children; and assistance for those self-isolating or who cannot access essential services including healthcare.

Our Derbyshire Connect and Moorlands Connect services will be running normally for key workers and essential travel.
Derbyshire Connect:

0700 - 1900h Monday - Friday

and 0800 - 1900h Sat

Call 01335 300670 or email bookings@derbyshireconnect.org.uk for more information

Moorlands Connect: 0800 - 1700h Mon - Fri

Call 01335 342951 or email bookings@moorlandsconnect.co.uk for more information

For any of the following services please call 01335 300670

- transport to essential hospital or GP appointments
- transport to supermarkets or food shops
- the collection of shopping or prescriptions

We are also working with the Ashbourne Local Traders Group to support the home delivery of food.

Please call us if you need more information or advice about the above. If we are unable to help we will direct to you to an organisation which can or gain advice from the Derbyshire County Council Community Hub

Cancellation of the Swift
From 30th March - 4th April when there will be no bus services between Ashbourne and Derby, ACT has agreed with Derbyshire CC that it can provide transport for key workers who would otherwise use the Swift to travel to work in the NHS at Derby Royal and Community Hospitals. Please email iris@ashbournect.org.uk to register for travel with proposed timing for travel.

ACT is only providing essential travel services as required by Derbyshire and Staffordshire County Councils. In order to protect our staff and our passengers we are adhering stringently to Government rules in relation to general hygiene, bus cleanliness and social distancing.

Funding News - February 2020

ACT Supporting Shrovetide

This year again ACT provided the Shrovetide Committee’s free transport shuttle service into the town centre from the Airfield Industrial Estate. The service ran for 12 hours each day and we estimate that over 1000 passengers used the service with 50-60 per hour carried at the busiest times.

Here at ACT we are very proud to be asked to run this community service to Ashbourne’s most famous and prestigious event; helping to reduce traffic problems in Ashbourne and keep everyone safe.

Oakamoor Parish Council Supports ACT

A big thanks to Oakamoor Parish Council for their donation of £500 to support the Weekly Shopping Service into Ashbourne. These funds will help us maintain fares for passengers from the village now that all support from Staffordshire County Council has been withdrawn. Although the service is primarily used for shopping it can be used for transport to other venues along the route such as the GP surgery. Bookings can be made by calling our office on 01335300670 or email to: enquiries@ashbourect.org.uk

Trips and Excursions

Despite the recent poor weather many passengers have enjoyed our recent ‘break the winter blues’ trips and excursions – the most recent being to Dobbies Garden Centre at Chesterfield and Trentham Gardens this week. A list of our proposed March Trips are now available and bookings are being taken with April and Easter Trips coming soon. In March we have an additional offer to our popular lunch trips with a Lunch and Quiz afternoon at the Duke of York at Pomreroy on Wed 25th. The Duke of York has become a regular venue and ACT is working with the team their on a plan to offer regular quiz and games afternoons.

Funding News - December 2019

Ashbourne Late Night Shopping

This years our stall at the late night shopping event raised c£200

Thank you to the ex servicemans club for hosting the event and to everyone who came along and donated

Charity Raffle

Thank you to all who have donated to our charity raffle so far this year, we have some fantastic prizes on offer. We are still collecting prizes, if you wish to donate a prize or would like to buy raffle tickets contact the office on 01335 300670

Our raffle will be drawn on December 31st.

Update 10/01/2020 - Happy New Year from everyone at ACT. A big thank you to all our sponsors and to everyone who entered our charity raffle, we raised a fantastic £500!

Congratulations to all our winners....

Top prizes went to;

Destiny – Avanti necklace

Chris – optimum voucher £20

Other prize winners were;

J Heathcote, Jim Turnbull, Chris Stokes, Dorris Allen , Ann Knight

Sonia Leigh, Janet Hambleton, Jane Harris, Ann Ings

Amy from flowershop, Lynne Clewes, Peter Lynch, Mark Tyack

Donna Davies, Claire burgess, Mandy Sowter

Funding News - November 2019

Enterprise Foundation Fund

This month we have been awarded £1k from the Enterprise Foundation Fund – our contract hire vehicle suppliers.

Brailsford Methodist Church Coffee Shop ‘charity’ fund

A donation of £500 has been received from the Brailsford Methodist Church Coffee Shop ‘charity’ fund.

Woodroffe Benton Foundation have donated £400 to assist with our work in the Ashbourne area.

These donations will help us continue with all the Charity’s work.

Mr Alan Steele Rigley

We are very grateful for the generous legacy of £5k from the estate of Mr Alan Steele Rigley. Donations of this type enable us to continue to provide accessible and affordable transport for those unable to use regular public transport or people living in rural areas where no public transport services exist.

Regenerating Ashbourne Town Centre
ACT is supporting the new Ashbourne Stakeholders Group which aims to produce a plan to regenerate the Town Centre. We already bring shoppers into the Town Centre on a regular basis and hope to work with the new group to increase these numbers especially by increasing our services to visitors.

Funding News - May 2019

Thank you to Cllr Jean Monks who presented Ashbourne Community Transport with a cheque this week from Chairman of Derbyshire Dales District Council's charity fund for 2018-19. This welcome additional funding will be used to support services in rural areas.

Ashbourne Little Bus Co

We are excited to announce the launch of our brand new website for our Sister Company - The Ashbourne Little Bus Company.

Ashbourne Little Bus Company provides a quality, private hire mini bus service covering a wide area including; Derbyshire Dales, Staffordshire Moorlands, South Derbyshire, Burton and Uttoxeter.

Perfect for groups travelling to any event, our door to door service is available for both public and business use. Our modern fleet of accessible mini-buses are available for;

- Local events
- Parties and Weddings
- Days / Evenings out
- Work events
- Airport runs
- Sporting events
plus many other types of private hire.

Ashbourne Little Bus Company is a sister company of Ashbourne Community Transport. Any surplus from our operations is reinvested into ACT to support the charity and its services.

Visit our new website www.ashbournelittlebusco.co.uk

Moorlands Connect

We are looking for funding to allow us to increase our Moorlands Connect services to weekends and evenings throughout the week. This great service helps people in more remote area's connect with Ashbourne, Buxton and Leek. We are also promoting the service as a great way for visitors to get out and enjoy the area.

If you think you can help please get in touch.

Funding News

Leyton Jordan - Sales Manager stopped by to deliver a £1000 cheque from the Enterprise Holdings Foundation to Ashbourne Community Transport.

NEWS UPDATE MARCH 2021

Charity Update

Thank you to all those families who have made a donation to our Charity in memory of a loved one. It is very pleasing to know that our services are of benefit to so many people.

Easter Opening Hours

The ACT Offices will be Closed on Friday 2 April (Good Friday) and Monday 5 April (Easter Monday) but our services will be operating and you can still contact us by calling 01335300670 or emailingenquiries@ashbournest.org.uk.

Derbyshire Connect will be running as normal on Good Friday and Easter Saturday – call 01335351942 or bookings@derbyshireconnect.co.uk