IN Thursday’s Swindon Advertiser, the Leader of Swindon council, Coun Bluh, argued that our town shouldn’t be afraid to be the first place to use EU Law to prevent Dial-a-Ride receiving council funding. The obvious pride that the leader of the council has in leading Swindon council into making this decision, is a pride I do not share.

A few other points need to be made on his column. Firstly, and regrettably, Swindon council is not the only council using EU Law to stop Dial-a-Ride receiving council funding (Swindon council is following in the footsteps of Lancashire CC, another Conservative council).

Secondly, from the details I have seen, I find it very disingenuous for Coun Bluh to argue that the users of Dial-a-Ride will not have a reduced service as a result of the actions of his administration. Let’s not forget that Coun Bluh was saying the same thing about Dial-a-Ride six months ago, when he was planning to cut the service by £50k and a council report had said that a cut of that scale would lead to a reduced service.

Lastly, by saying that the users of Dial-a-Ride can receive the same quality of service without that service being delivered by this voluntary organisation, it is quite clear that Coun Bluh simply doesn’t get the service that Dial-a-Ride gives. As this voluntary organisation isn’t just about transporting Swindon’s disabled and vulnerable people to places they would not have otherwise been able to get to, it is also about delivering a quality, personalised service that you would never be able to find from an impersonal private-sector transport firm.

Dial-a-Ride’s roots are in Swindon’s communities and that is why Swindon’s Labour councillors back Dial-a-Ride.

(Coun) DERIQUE MONTAUT Leader of the Labour Group Swindon Borough Council