Buses and taxis used to deliver food and medicine in Shropshire

With people staying home due to the lockdown, or unable to leave the house due to self-isolating or other health reasons, Shropshire Council's passenger transport team is working to ensure that people receive their urgent supplies.

Steve Davenport, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “We’re working hard to make sure that people get food, medicines and other important items and I want to thank all involved in providing this important service.

“Community car drivers are being used to deliver prescriptions, taxis are being organised to deliver food parcels around the Shrewsbury area, and some of the commercial bus operators who would normally have been providing school transport are delivering shopping to assist some of community transport groups within Shropshire who have been inundated with requests for help.

“And we’re working with Shire Catering to develop a network to deliver hot meals to people housed in temporary accommodation around the county, utilising our own internal fleet for the larger deliveries and our commercial transport operators for smaller countywide distribution.”

The council has been working with the Shropshire CCG and Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) to provide transport for people with Covid-19 symptoms who need to attend the assessment centres in Shrewsbury and Telford, but have no alternative transport.