Extract from the Oxford Times, Friday, January 11, 1980 by Sally Duncan.
Transcribed by Jane Hill.
Getting to the doctor’s surgery used to be a major expedition for villagers in Warborough without their own transport. They faced a mile-long trek to the nearest bus stop – and the chance of a long, cold wait if they missed the hourly bus home. But thanks to the community spirit of the village postmaster, members of the local Women’s Institute and their friends, all that has long been a thing of the past.
For 14 years or so the villagers in Warborough and nearby Shillingford have had their own surgery car service. People who need to see the doctor but have no transport of their own have only to telephone the post office, and a car will be at the door.
The surgery run is operated by a group of 125 regular volunteer drivers – all using their own cars, and all providing their services free. The drivers take it in turn to be on call for the day – and there are five standby drivers as well, to cover illness or any other problems.
Theo King hands the prescription box to Mrs Jameson
Warborough postmaster Mr. Theo King has his own copy of the drivers’ rota – so, when someone telephones him to ask for a lift, he in turn calls the duty driver, he also calls the health centre at Berinsfield to let them know how many are coming. Prescriptions, as well as patients, are transported on the surgery run. Empty prescription bottles are left in a bucket at the Post Office – and fresh prescriptions brought in their place.
Other villages served by the Berinsfield Health Centre have set up their own surgery car services, – but it was at Warborough that the idea was pioneered.
One of the scheme’s founders, Mrs. Margaret Allen, admits that it relies heavily on the goodwill of volunteers. But with a duty day only once every three weeks, and the chance that even then a driver may not be needed, she reckons it is not too much of a burden on the individual. Only half a dozen of the total number of volunteers have been involved with the scheme since its inception Others have left the village or developed other commitments – but there seems to have been no shortage of willing volunteers to take their place.
“People are very community – minded here” says Mrs. Allen. “We’re very much a village that looks after its residents.”
Perhaps one of the other strengths of the Warborough scheme, the reason it has carried on working for so long, is that it meets a special need: that of patients wanting to see the doctor. Other villages which have tried vaguer, more general car sharing schemes have met with less success.
Mrs Jameson with Mr & Mrs Currall
The first car sharing scheme in Oxfordshire was started at Taynton, near Burford, in 1973 – but it folded four years later. Partly it was because the need was no longer there. Those who had formerly used the scheme had moved away or bought their own cars. But partly, too, it was because of a dwindling number of volunteers – the rock on which many similar schemes have foundered.
Other villages have tried organising lists of lifts wanted and lifts offered and matching up the two. But after the initial flush of enthusiasm interest has waned. Informal car-sharing has been a part of many people’s lives for years – especially people from the same workplace.
Oxfordshire County Council, for instance, ran a scheme to try to encourage its employees to share their cars, doing a kid of computer dating service for motorists.
For those who have regular working hours, always making the same trip each day the system can be ideal – and it can help ease traffic congestion in the rush hour. But others may value their independence too much to share their car on more than the odd occasion. For it is its flexibility as a mode of transport which has always been the car’s greatest attraction. Another problem is that car sharing or pooling may take passengers away from public transport. In villages where bus services are non-existent anyway, car sharing can be a useful and positive alternative, but elsewhere, it may well jeopardise what bus services there are
Until May this year, car sharing and charging for the lift was officially illegal. Floods of information leaflets were circulated after it was legalised – but the expected rush of social car schemes did not materialise. Partly, no doubt, this was because the whole process is still hedged around with endless rules and regulations. For instance, unless they are part of an approved organised social car scheme, cost-sharing lifts can be advertised in only a limited number of places. (At work, at a club, a church or in a church magazine – but not, for instance, in a shop window or on a parish notice board. A special licence has to be granted by the Traffic Commissioners before lifts can be advertised widely).
But perhaps the biggest barrier to such schemes is people’s own attitudes In the last petrol crisis, people were sharing their cars left, right and centre. But as soon as the petrol started flowing again, everyone went back into splendid isolation.
The social and economic arguments against having row upon row of cars, each carrying just one person, are strong. But people will need a lot of persuading to change the habits of a lifetime – an Englishman’s car is still his castle.