Disabled woman from Sheffield says Travel Buddy scheme that got scrapped was a 'lifeline'

The scheme, which was cancelled in 2017, allowed disabled people and people with learning disabilities to be assisted when travelling and have a ‘buddy’ accompany them.

Eileen Turner, aged 69, is severely disabled and relied on the Travel Buddy scheme to get out and about. “It was a lifeline for me. Now I can only go out once a week and it’s an absolute nightmare,” she said. “Trying to organise an electric scooter I’ve had to get used to it’s a nightmare and it has made a vast impact on my life.

“The buddies I had were fantastic with me and the kindness they showed me was second to none. I can’t believe a city as big as Sheffield will not fund this scheme again. Lives depend on it."

She added: “Money has been found for Ponds Forge and the Crucible so why not this? I am asking for this. Why isn’t someone doing something about it? No one has ever got back to me, I have never got answers and I want to know why we lost it.”

She added: “I used to pay a nominal fee of £15 then £5 for the bus fare. Then they started charging £15 an hour. In the end I was paying £45 just to go out to the shops on a Tuesday and Friday. I couldn’t sustain (spending) this amount of money, I get benefits and my pension for being disabled and I still cannot sustain paying that. Then it got cancelled altogether. No one else who uses travel buddies can sustain it. This is disabled people and pensioners etc.”

Louise Haigh MP for Sheffield Heeley, said: “Bus services are supposed to be there to serve the community and to ensure that passengers can get to medical appointments, visit friends and family and to work. It was really disappointing to see this community service lost during the pandemic, but I and my office worked closely with the council to ensure that this particular constituent and others were offered alternatives and the support they needed to ensure they could still get out and about.

“Unfortunately, services across Sheffield have seen years of underinvestment from successive Tory governments, which has resulted in vital services, that people rely on, being cut. That’s why we need to ensure that bus services are brought back into public control, so they work for passengers and not private operators.”