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Phox Elements
OB1
Otterbrook Community Transport
Registered charity · Cleave Valley, Somerset
Appeal · closes Thursday 5 November

A new minibus for the Tuesday run.

Our 2007 minibus has done 311,000 miles and its wheelchair lift keeps failing. We need £42,000 for a newer bus with a proper lift and four wheelchair spaces. This page says exactly where the money goes.
Give to the bus fund
Read the story
Raised so far
£27,340
of a £42,000 target, from people who live along the route
318
people have given
41
days left to give
65%
of the way there
The route to £42,000
£14,660 to go
Stretch 1 · to £10,500
Deposit to hold the bus
Reached 14 August
Stretch 2 · to £21,000
The bus itself, paid in full
Reached 30 August
Stretch 3 · to £31,500
Rear wheelchair lift and floor tracking
£6,340 of £10,500 so far
Stretch 4 · to £42,000
Seats, belts, grab handles and signwriting
Not started yet
The story
5 minute read · by Ruth Aldred

Our bus is nineteen years old, and it has started to say so.

Ruth Aldred has run the timetable since 2011 and still drives the Tuesday run herself.
Every weekday our minibus does the rounds of the Cleave Valley villages. Tuesdays are the busiest: fourteen passengers, the market in Wellford, the surgery, the library, and home in time for tea. For a lot of the people on board it is the only way out of the village that week.
The bus we have now was bought second-hand in 2007 and has done 311,000 miles. Last winter the wheelchair lift failed four times, twice with someone on the platform, and the garage has told us plainly that the gearbox won’t see another MOT without a repair that costs more than the bus is worth.
“If the lift is broken, I don’t go to the market. It’s that simple.”
Maureen, on the Tuesday run since 2015
The 2007 bus outside Wellford surgery in March, on one of the days the lift worked.
We have found a three-year-old sixteen-seater, and a converter in Taunton who will fit a new rear lift and four wheelchair spaces. The total, conversion included, is £42,000. Our county council grant pays for fuel and drivers’ expenses, but it can’t be spent on vehicles, so this has to come from the people who ride with us and the people who live along the route.
We are not asking anyone to give more than they comfortably can. If you can’t give, telling a neighbour about the bus helps too.
What your money does
Costs from the converter’s quote, rounded

Every amount buys a real part of the bus.

All of it goes into the bus fund, which is kept apart from our day-to-day money. Fuel and drivers’ expenses are paid by the county council grant, so none of this goes on running costs.
Single
Otterbrook CT
£10
Lays about a metre of the non-slip floor the converter fits across the whole cabin.
Give £10
Day return
Otterbrook CT
£25
Pays for one of the grab handles beside every seat, so people can steady themselves as they stand.
Give £25
Season ticket
Otterbrook CT
£100
Covers roughly a day of fitting the rear wheelchair lift, the part that failed four times last winter.
Give £100
Prefer to give monthly, by cheque or in person? All three are fine, see the questions further down.
Updates
Last updated 22 September 2026

News from the depot.

We post here whenever something changes, good news or bad. The appeal opened on 13 July.
22 SEP 2026
Latest

£27,340, and a date with the converter

The conversion slot is booked for the first week of January. If we reach the target by 5 November, the new bus should be carrying passengers by the end of February.
30 AUG 2026
Stretch two reached

Half way, six weeks in

£21,000 raised, which pays for the bus itself. Thank you to the Wellford WI, whose plant sale alone raised £1,140.
14 AUG 2026
Stretch one reached

Deposit paid

We paid £10,500 to hold the bus. It is parked at the converter’s yard now, waiting for its lift.
13 JUL 2026
Appeal opens

We launched at the summer fête

The old bus was parked outside the church all afternoon. Its lift worked that day, which felt like a small miracle.
Who’s behind it
3 part-time staff · 26 volunteer drivers · 5 trustees

Four of the people you’ll meet on the bus.

Ruth Aldred
Timetable coordinator, driving since 2011
Dev Rana
Volunteer driver and appeal treasurer
Carol Minty
Chair of trustees, retired district nurse
Sam Okafor
Part-time mechanic who keeps the old bus going
Our accounts are published every year, with the bus fund shown on its own line.
Questions
Answered by the trustees

The things people ask us at the bus stop.

If your question isn’t here, ring the depot on a weekday morning and ask for Ruth. She answers the phone herself.
Email the appeal team

The seller will hold the bus until the end of November. If we fall short we will look at a small loan from the community bank for the gap, and tell you here before we do. Nothing you give will be spent on anything other than a vehicle.

Yes, if you pay UK income tax. Tick the box when you give and we can claim an extra 25p for every £1, at no cost to you.

We looked. An accessible minibus on lease costs about £900 a month, which is more than our whole fuel budget, and at the end of it we would own nothing.

A farm in the valley is buying it as a store for £1,500. That money is already counted in the total at the top of this page.

Yes. Make cheques out to Otterbrook Community Transport, or hand cash to any driver in a sealed envelope with your name on it and we will post you a receipt.

When the bus is delivered we will put the converter’s invoice and the registration document on this page, and the fund appears as its own line in our annual accounts.
41 days left · 318 people have given

£14,660 to go.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. Give what feels right, tell a neighbour about the bus, or come and drive it. All three help.
Give £25
Choose your own amount
Volunteer as a driver
Otterbrook Community Transport, The Depot, Mill Lane, Otterbrook. Registered charity in England and Wales.