Coronavirus: Buses, taxis and community cars deliver food and medicines to people’s homes

Buses, taxis, and community cars are being used to deliver food parcels, hot meals and medicines to vulnerable people across Shropshire, thanks to the work of Shropshire Council’s passenger transport team.

With people staying home due to the lockdown, or unable to leave the house due to self-isolating or other health reasons, the 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.”

Meanwhile, Shropshire 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.

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