REGARDING Dial-a-Ride, instead of all the talk of who pays for what, why not look at the logistics of making the service pay for itself, or at least contributes towards the cost?

I have spoken with many users who agree that they would be happy to return to the previous system of paying an agreed amount towards the cost of their journeys (I believe it was £1.25 per journey, making a total of £2.50 per round trip against the current £10 for the use of a taxi within Banbury).

Apart from the present uncertainty there is the complete inability of the current administrators to plan the routing of the various journeys. I understand they are based in Oxford and it is obvious that they don’t know the detailed layout of the areas they are covering.

Why not allocate transport to one district on one day – one each for Banbury, Kidlington, Bicester, etc – and make it shopping trip day? The majority of users find the greatest difficulty in getting their weekly shopping.

There is a limit to the time one can expect friends to give to this particular exercise and I admit it probably takes us longer to go round the supermarket which, if one doesn’t get out much, can in itself be a pleasure.

Unfortunately, of course, visits to the hospital and/or the doctor wouldn’t be covered by this proposed scheme but let’s tackle one problem at a time. I feel sure there are a lot of different viable options out there.

Oh, and by the way, what happened to that £5 I sent to the council against my use of the defunct Dial-a-Ride service?

So come on, everyone, let’s have less negativity on this subject.

Mrs Ray Kent, Homestead Road, Banbury