Wheels in motion to help job seekers

Nov 9 2007 by Dave Black, The Journal

JOBLESS people in a former Northumberland coalfield area could be provided with their own set of wheels to help them access work or training and escape the misery of unemployment.

Residents in a clutch of old pit villages are being offered the loan of a car or scooter for up to nine months under the innovative transport scheme launched this week.

The CAN – Coastal Areas Northumberland – travel scheme targets unemployed people in the ex-coalfield communities of Lynemouth, Linton, Pegswood, Cresswell, Ellington, Widdrington, Hadston and Red Row.

Successful applicants will be given the use of a small car or motor scooter for up to nine months, at a nominal charge, if transport problems are acting as a barrier to them getting a job or accessing a training course.

Their vehicle would be fully taxed and insured, supplied with breakdown cover and delivered with a full tank of petrol.

Potential car borrowers will need a full driving licence, while anyone applying for a scooter without having passed their driving test would have to undergo a compulsory bike training course.

Funded jointly by the Advancing Castle Morpeth (ACM) organisation and the Northumberland Strategic Partnership, the scheme has a budget of £90,000, which the organisers say could make about 12 small cars or scooters available for loan.

It was launched this week by local strategic partnership ACM, with the support of one of its sub-area groups, ENRGI and Castle Morpeth Council’s regeneration and partnership unit.

Yesterday, Brenda Fordy-Scott, who chairs the ACM partnership, said: “There are people who have real problems accessing certain jobs or training courses because of poor public transport serving the communities where they live.

“Shift workers in the old coalfield communities, in particular, often find it impossible to take up the offer of a job if they don’t have transport of their own, because there simply isn’t a bus or train to get them to work or home again at the end of their shift.”

Anyone interested in the scheme should contact Lynemouth-based ENRGI on (01670) 863001, Working Links on (01670) 536230 or the borough council’s Christine Cowans on (01670) 794785.