Tongue transport group going places with fully-funded minibus

A community transport group in Tongue has taken delivery of a fully-funded new 9-seater electric minibus.

The new vehicle purchase was made possible thanks to a "plugged in communities" grant from the Energy Saving Trust, which provides community transport organisations with the opportunity to apply for funding to buy zero emission vehicles.

Transport for Tongue (T4T) was first established in 2009 with the aim of addressing the lack of public transport in Tongue, Melness and Skerray, enlisting volunteer drivers with their own vehicles to ferry local people around north Sutherland.

T4T already have one other electric car, which was funded through the Community Climate Action Fund, which is mainly used to take members of the community to hospital appointments.

The group's bosses say that the new 9-seater minibus, funded by a grant of £66921.40, will be of significant help to the area's young student community.

Company director, Marion Milligan, said: "It is an excellent asset that will stand us in good stead. It is likely that it will get used to provide transport to the North Highland College in Thurso for students.

"We owe our former operations manager Ken Palmer an immense debt of gratitude. The board are also very grateful to all our volunteers and drivers, all of whom do a considerable amount of voluntary hours to ensure T4T remains flexible and responsive to our community's needs."

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