A New Transport Initiative Trial Taking Place in Waverley
We’ve received the details of a fantastic initiative that has taken place in Waverley.
This is a trial run of a new free transport initiative launched by Waverley Borough Council to provide free minibus transport to young athletes who live in the borough and participate in a local sports club. Both Hoppa and VDBC Volleyball are taking part in the scheme, in contribution to the government pledge made in 2012 to move the British population into a healthier lifestyle.
Read more below…
‘One of Surrey’s leading youth volleyball organisations, the VBDC Volleyball Club, took part in a 28 November pilot run of Waverley Hoppa Community Transport’s Get in the Game scheme for transporting young athletes to their club’s sports activities.
The run took four members of the club to an evening match in the Surrey Volleyball League’s Men’s Division 2, in a demonstration of how the scheme will support youth sports in Waverley.
Hoppa is already well-known in Waverley as the borough’s transport service for pensioners and handicapped residents, taking them to medical appointments, supermarkets and scheduled social activities.
The Get in the Game initiative is intended to widen the service to younger people who need help getting to sports activities in safety.
The volleyball run provided Hoppa with feedback for establishing the procedure by which athletes can apply for and receive free transport to their clubs’ scheduled training and competitive events.
VBDC Volleyball Club had expressed an interest in supporting the launch because of one of the main problems it faces in its youth programmes: the difficulty athletes often have in getting to the few sports halls in Surrey that can accommodate volleyball competition and advanced training.
Deb Pickens, a Farnham resident and chair of the club, believes the test run showed sports clubs of all types now have a new means of increasing youth participation in their sport. But it will require clubs to cooperate with Hoppa, and with each other too, she said…
“It is early days and our run was relatively simple to organise, but the concept of providing safe transport to youngsters committed to their sport is bound to gather momentum,” she said. “As demand grows it will be important for clubs to coordinate their activities and work with Hoppa to establish an efficient service that supports the growth of all youth sports.”
Cooperation could include things such as the designation of safe collection and drop-off locations, and scheduling sports runs to supplement the on-demand transport which Hoppa provides in its established services, she explained.
“The service needs to be inclusive and Hoppa already has a well-established reputation for providing accessible transport to handicapped people,” she noted. “There has been steady growth in the local provision of sports activities for the handicapped, with places like the community-managed The Edge sports centre in Haslemere, Surrey, requiring all clubs using the facility to include a handicapped component in their sport activities. Free transport for disabled athletes is something every community should support.”
Get in the Game is in a trial stage that continues until the spring, when it will be reviewed and possibly continued. The review will consider the take-up of the service by Waverley youth sports clubs.
“Our club wholeheartedly endorses this project,” said Pickens. “There is a huge amount of social, medical and political pressure to get young people more active, and structured sport is one of the best ways of doing that. If families can be provided with a safe means of getting their children to organised club events then services like Hoppa are taking an important role to help fulfil one of the national goals that was set way back in 2012 at the London Olympics, getting our citizens into a healthier lifestyle.”’
