New minibus for Lewes Community Transport Operator

Community Transport for the Lewes Area [CTLA] will soon be taking delivery of a new wheelchair accessible minibus.
CTLA is one of 300 community transport providers across the country that will benefit from awards made from The Department for Transport Community Transport Minibus Fund.

In his letter to CTLA confirming the award Patrick McLoughlin, the Secretary of State for Transport said “I am pleased to be able to support organisations such as yours to help you to continue to deliver services which can be such a lifeline to communities”.

Derek Barnett General Manager for CTLA comments “this is obviously brilliant news for us and the local community. The new bus will help us to meet the ever increasing demand for our vital services from individuals and Community Groups in Lewes Town and surrounding villages”.

Service 131 – this Summer Saturdays service will start on 23rd May and will run on all Saturdays and Public holidays until the end of September. We have used the lessons learned from operating a service last year and therefore the routing does vary significantly from last year’s service. The unique “selling point” on this service that is new this year is to provide a link to and from Ditchling Beacon that we hope will attract walkers and Tourists. The journeys have been timed to link to the Brighton & Hove Buses  service to and from Brighton Town Centre thus giving an opportunity for a good scenic journey combining the two services. In addition the routing will mean that Ditchling and Plumpton residents will be able to access Lewes directly.

Service 132 – this is the Lewes Town service that we are able to provide on Sundays following receipt of Grant funding from Lewes Town Council. We are very pleased with the increasing number of passenger journeys that are being undertaken as the availability of the service becomes more well known. It is operating now and the present funding will enable us to guarantee continuation until spring 2016 but because of its increasing popularity we are very hopeful of ensuring sustainability. However as with all services the best way to ensure their viability is for people to use them.

For more information about CTLA services please go to www.ctla.org.uk or telephone them on 01273 517332.

LTP publishes recruitment leaflets

The Lewes Town Partnership has created 200 folded A4 leaflets to promote itself and to encourage other organisations to join.

In the leaflet we have highlighted some past projects and explained what the Partnership is about and how it works.

A stock is kept at the Tourist Information Centre in Lewes, so if your organisation is interested in joining or knows of anyone who might be interested in signing up, do pick up a leaflet.

Let us have your leaflets for our stand on May 30

For the Hike and Bike festival opening day on May 30, Lewes Town Partnership is having a stall in the precinct. We’d like to invite our members who have leaflets on subjects relevant to the festival – bike training, health walks, public transport etc – to let us have material for the stall. Please either leave in the Lewes Town Partnership pigeonhole in the town hall or drop them in at Tim Locke’s house, 73 Paddock Lane, Lewes.