A PETITION against cuts to a vital transport service for vulnerable people in Swindon has been set up.

Swindon Council’s Conservative cabinet has put forward proposals to cut £50,000 from the budget of the town’s Dial A Ride service.

The leader of the Labour group, who claims the cuts will reduce journeys by 35 per cent, has now set up a petition and called on residents to write to the council to express their opposition.

Coun Derique Montaut (Lab, Central) challenged the cabinet’s insistence that budgets in all areas needed to be cut, claiming that £1m a year is spent on consultancy, public relations and hospitality.

Cabinet members have insisted that the cuts, out of a total subsidy of £331,000, will be from efficiency savings and not have an effect on Dial A Ride’s ability to operate.

Coun Montaut said: “These cuts will have a direct effect on vulnerable people, who find it difficult to defend themselves.

“Somebody needs to stand up for them. We hope to put this petition out at libraries, sheltered accommodation and at the Dial A Ride base.

“Reducing the huge budget deficit that the Swindon Council has amassed has been the most used excuse for this reduction in funding and it has regularly been stated by the council’s administration that all areas of the council’s budget have had to be dramatically reduced.

“However this argument seems to be fundamentally flawed when Swindon Council is still spending over £1m on consultancy, public relations and hospitality fees.”

Coun Montaut has also sent an open letter to Dial A Ride users urging them to write to the council.

In it he said: “I believe that if enough letters are mailed to the council, which outlines the importance of this service and enough people sign up to the Dial A Ride petition, then this cut can be stopped.

“So the choice is ours, and I hope you will join the Labour group in making sure that this service, which does so much to liberate the elderly and disabled, is not savagely cut by a council administration who have not got a clue what benefits Dial A Ride give.”

The cuts, as part of Swindon Council’s budget proposals will be discussed at the next full council meeting on January 14.