WITH a helping hand from Dial-a-Ride driver Colin Edmunds, pensioner Dot Wilkins gets on board for her weekly trip to the supermarket.

Yet she is concerned that the Cherwell district service will be cut back because of council funding changes.

At the moment, the service – which picks up OAPs and the disabled from their homes – is managed by Oxfordshire’s five district councils.

Each provides a different level of service for its residents, with those in South Oxfordshire receiving no service at all.

But when Oxfordshire County Council takes over Dial-a-Ride management in April, it means resources will be spread evenly.

Council transport boss Rodney Rose said: “It would be unrealistic to assume that Cherwell’s Dial-a-Ride will remain at the current high level.

“We can’t put more into Cherwell than South Oxfordshire and the Vale district, that isn’t how a county-funded organisation works.”

South Oxfordshire’s service will improve while Oxford, Vale and West Oxfordshire will “remain about the same” said Mr Rose, cabinet member for transport.

Cherwell District Council is to cut its £187,000 contribution to the service, with the inevitable reduction in service, he said. It was not available for comment last night.

Mrs Wilkins gets the service every Wednesday and Friday to see husband of 63 years Arthur at Lake House care home, five miles away in Adderbury. She also gets taken to the supermarket every week.

The 82-year-old said: “Old people won’t be able to afford a taxi. We can’t have it taken away, we would be lost without it.”

The council expects to make a decision on which organisations will get dial-a-ride contracts by Christmas.

Brian Price, manager of the Banburyshire Community Transport Association (BCTA), which runs the Cherwell service, said: “We will go out of business unless adequate funding is found from somewhere.”

He said the loss of the 26-year-old organisation, which has 10 buses, would be “devastating” for the district, which has about 8,300 residents aged 75 and over.

The county last year proposed ending free dial-a-ride travel but backed down after an outcry.