The Risborough  Area Community Bus service is for residents in the Risboroughs and adjacent villages who are without public transport and for whom access to shops, leisure and medical facilities is difficult.

The service also helps to bring more people into the town for the benefit of local businesses.

A company limited by guarantee, with 6 unpaid trustees, was set up and registered as a charity in March 2010 to buy and operate the new community bus.  Leaflets and talks to local groups helped recruit a management committee of volunteers and thirty volunteer drivers.

Easy access for all
Once funding and the necessary licenses were in place, a daily scheduled service began operating to the residential areas of Princes Risborough, Monks Risborough and Longwick with a further service to the village of Loosley Row two days a week.  Because the average age of local residents is above the national average, a flat, low-floor and easy-access minibus was the obvious choice.

The 14-seater minibus arrived in May 2010 and was painted in its Risborough Area Community Bus livery.  Timetables were drawn up, printed and delivered to every household in the town.

A self-employed, paid coordinator handles the day-to-day running of the service and liaises with the drivers.

The scheduled service began on 19 July 2010. From just 70 passengers in the first week of operation the bus now regularly carries more than 325 passengers each week. When not on its scheduled service, small groups use the bus for leisure activities.

Risborough Area Community Bus won the Social and Community category of the South East Action for Market Towns Awards.

What next?

• Join Action for Market Towns for access to our valuable database of case studies (including a detailed study of this Award-winning project and contacts), policy and practice research, and much more (AMT members read the full case study here)
• Find out more about the Action for Market Towns Awards
• Ask about working with volunteers on market town projects in the AMT Forum

Kop Hill Climb was a famous venue for motorsport road racing between 1910 and 1925. Now the Community Action team in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire has recreated the famous event as part of a programme to involve the community in raising the profile of Princes Risborough and increasing economic activity. The project has won the South East of England regional prize in the prestigious Market Town Awards and will go head-to-head with projects from seven other regions in the National Market Town Awards.

250 veteran and vintage cars and motorcycles took part in the event, from the oldest 1903 Humberette to the original 1921 Aston Martin prototype, last driven on Kop Hill in 1922, and onwards to a 2009 Bugatti Veyron. The Kop Hill Climb was run by the British Motorsport Marshals Club.

The complex logistics involved a team of six volunteers spending 15 months on planning the event, including arranging for grandstand and viewing platforms, road closures, layouts of the entrants paddock, trade and food stands  and spectator car parks. 110 volunteers acted as event stewards to control traffic and spectators.

The Market Town Award judges commented that the project was an excellent example of partnership working, using historic event to enhance a ‘sense of place’.

The Kop Hill Climb won Risborough Area Community Action (RACA) the Environment and Culture Category in the regional Market Town Awards and was also the overall regional winner. The award was presented at a ceremony in Faringdon by Lord and Lady Faringdon, and Chris Wade, Chief Executive of Action for Market Towns.  They now go head-to-head with other regional winners to compete for the National Market Town Award at the Action for Market Towns Convention in Chippenham, Wiltshire on October 12.

Other winners were:

Partnership and Strategic Working Category – Sandwich Quay, Kent for the refurbishment of public conveniences which was critical to support tourism in the town. A partnership between the town council and the district council involved £40,000 being spent on refurbishment by the district council in return for the town council taking on the management.

Social and Community Category – Caterham Festival, a six-week long arts and cultural festival. Based around the existing Town Carnival, 72 new events were added, over half of them free with something for everyone, including a street party for the whole town, art exhibitions and lessons, music lessons and an open Caterham Weekend.

Business & Economy – Trout and About, Stockbridge Area Partnership for a project to raise the profile of local food and craft, by spotlighting the process of local food production from producer/grower to consumer. The project ‘Trout and About’ was named to capitalise on the world famous trout river The Test, which runs through the centre of Stockbridge.  The project has highlighted local rural industries, encouraged new food business to the town and has encouraged existing food businesses to ‘stock local’.

The South East of England Market Town Awards are part of the National Market Town Awards which each year celebrate the great variety of volunteer-led projects which are helping to regenerate and sustain small towns throughout the country. The Awards are organised by Action for Market Towns, the national organization with over 400 towns in membership which supports the regeneration and vitality of small towns.

Ends

For further press information on the market town awards, please contact: John Pole on 01430 441557. E-mail: john.pole@towns.org.uk

To contact Kop Hill Climb, Princes Risborough, ring Tony Davies on 01844 346903

To contact Sandwich Quay, Kent, ring Tracey Ward on 01304 617197

To contact Caterham Festival, ring Andrew Parr on 07802 846902

To contact Trout and About, ring Richard Gueterbock on 07802 846902