A LIFELINE transport service that brings independence for many of the city's lonely elderly residents is urgently seeking new funding to allow it to continue.

From lunch clubs to the weekly shop, Aspire’s Community Transport Service takes 151 passengers around the city and surrounding villages five-days-a-week.

For many it is their only chance to leave the house a week but the service, which costs £100,000-a year to operate, only has funding secured until April 2018, leaving many users fearing for the future.

Before it existed, Val Longford used to have to pay £14 to get a taxi to get to her club at St James’ Church in Cowley.

The 85-year-old said: “We want to get out and go to our clubs where they have quizzes and games, to keep us active still.

“This bus means we can do it, otherwise we would just be stuck and left at home.”

Betty Evans-Smith, 89, said she would be shocked if her lifeline was taken away.

She added: “It is an excellent service, I cannot describe it any other way.

“We do not want to be stuck in on our own, we’ve made some very good friends coming on here, they are like our new family.”

Aspire took over the service, formerly called Dial-a-ride, in 2015. As well as the operating costs, such as fuel and licensing, the charity must also pay for the wages of the two staff who run the service - manager Tony Tinkham and passenger assistant Craig Miles.

Users of the transport service are required to pay an annual membership fee of £30, which entitles them to two trips a week and is significantly less than other services.

The service operates five-days-a-week from 9am until 5pm so would struggle to operate with volunteers.

Mr Tinkham said: “If we were to say what we do is a job, we cannot call it work. It is like we are meeting up and picking up our friends, I have about 50 adoptive grandmothers.

“It would be devastating if we could not keep this service running.

“For some of the ladies this is their only time in the week that they will have contact with anyone else.”

And for the passengers, 58 per cent of whom would not be able to leave their homes without it, the bus service is more than just a way to get out and about.

Wheelchair bound Jane Slade uses it twice a week to get to Oxsrad sport and leisure centre.

The 60-year-old said: “No one wants to be stuck at home festering.

“And this makes sure that you can go out and do the things you want to do, it gives you a life.

“But it is more than just a transport service. You really feel like you’ve made new friends on here.

“Sometimes when I am back home it will take me a few hours before I calm down because I’m still laughing from what has gone on in the bus.”

Back in 2015 Aspire agreed with Oxfordshire County Council to run the service but in a wave of cuts to community transport services the subsidy was scrapped.

A deal was struck with the county council, which gave a £52,000 grant, to ensure that the service could continue running into 2017-2018.

Spokesman for the county council Paul Smith said: “Aspire were given a pump prime grant to enable them to start a community transport service in Oxford.

"As it was a pump prime grant it was never intended to be ongoing.

"Aspire have known this from the very outset and this is consistent with how we have supported other community projects across Oxfordshire.

"We would love to provide ongoing to all the many volunteer groups who work across Oxfordshire but the finances do not exist to allow that to happen."

The county council operates Oxfordshire Comet vehicles, which take children to school and adults to day care centres.

Oxford City Council also stepped in to help by providing a one-off grant funding of £40,000 to help move it to a self-funding model.

Chief executive of Aspire Paul Roberts said: "Isolation in the elderly is a critical issue for our community.

“But this local transport service is under threat of closure in the coming months, leaving elderly people extremely vulnerable.”

In Oxfordshire more than 30,000 over 65s live alone, including 92 per cent of the transport’s passengers.

For more information or to help donate visit: aspireoxford.co.uk