Client Services Report
The City of Whittlesea showed their continued support in providing funding towards the Community Transport Coordinator
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position which ended on the 30 June 2012. We are grateful that the council committed $50,000 in their 2012/2013 budget
to purchase a new 12 seater vehicle which will replace a vehicle that we could no longer afford to lease. The Whittlesea
Northern Transport Links (WNTL) partnership provided some funding towards a seniors vehicle and extended funding
towards the Health Connect vehicle until January 2013.
Community transport increased steadily again this year.
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Total referrals increased for this period by 30% from 1,522 to 1,965.
Trips were 31% higher rising from 2,547 to 3,342
Passengers went from 1,850 to 2,717 an increase of 46%
The Social Enterprise arm of our service, Connect Plus, continued to increase its
self-drive bus hires throughout 2011 -2012 by increasing the number of new
organisations using this service. The social enterprise has been developed to
ensure the long term sustainability of our Community Transport Service. Not for Profit organisations and community groups
can hire our vehicles to run programs or activities for a fee. The funds raised from this service are put directly back in to the
running costs of our Community Transport Service. Group transport decreased during this financial year due to the end of a
contract with a regular service user. As a result, group referrals for the year reduced from 438 to 372. In 2011-12, 2763
passengers were transported compared to 3262 the previous year. Overall, individual referrals continued to increase and our
combined number of passengers for the year totalled 5480.
This year, with the help of the Whittlesea Leader Newspaper, WCC launched our “Get Connect Plus a Big Bus” campaign to
raise funds towards the purchase of a 24 seater vehicle.
This vehicle would not only add to our fleet, but would
allow for larger groups to access our hire service, again
contributing to the long term sustainability of our
community transport service. We held several fundraising
activities including our first Trivia Night, hosted by Harry
Jenkins MP at Epping Memorial Hall. We also ran a
Christmas gift wrapping stall with the support of Epping
Plaza where shoppers made gold coin donations to have
their Christmas gifts wrapped, and held a sausage sizzle at
Bunnings in Mill Park with the help of staff and our
transport volunteers. Collectively, these activities raised
over $11,000. A great start towards our $80,000 goal.
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