Our History

We have been providing a door-to-door transport service in Newcastle-under-Lyme and the surrounding area for over 50+ years

Newcastle Community Transport CIO (NCT CIO) was founded in 1974 by like-minded people who wanted to help people who struggled with accessing transport to be able to travel to doctors, dentists, and clinics. In the early days we had one vehicle, a converted van provided by Audley Rotarians. We were grateful to have this first vehicle, but our early passengers had a rather basic travel experience. The van had no tail lift or ramps, and if a passenger had mobility issues, we had to physically lift them in and out! (today, thankfully, Health & Safety does not allow this indignity and we are a very well-equipped for all our customer’s needs)

In 1979, we sold our first vehicle and bought a new minibus. With the aid of a ramp, wheelchair passengers could now be helped onto the bus. Fundraising led to further improvements, and we were able to install a basic tail lift. Originally designed for loading potatoes, the new lift worked well and we saw a dramatic increase in passenger numbers. 

During the 1980s, our fundraising efforts helped us purchase more sophisticated minibuses, all built to our pioneering design. Between 1997 and 2011, council policy enabled the use of discretionary bus passes on our vehicles. This policy changed in 2011, and we now must charge a small passenger fee to help cover our running costs and use Permit 19 to continue to offer our services.

In 1998, Newcastle Borough Council kindly provided secure parking spaces for our vehicles at their Knutton Lane Depot. Our minibuses stayed here until a change of function at the depot led to a search for new parking spaces in 2016. We were delighted when local businessman Mo Chaudry came to the rescue, and our minibuses now have safe, secure parking spaces at M Club Spa and Fitness Centre.

In 2023, we were able to again secure funding for three years with a joint bid led by VAST. We entered a partnership with VAST who also operate a Door2Door service which is a door2door car service. This enables us to have the peace of mind that our basic operating costs are safely secure with monies from the bid and Newcastle Community Transport CIO can operate our service with piece of mind for three years whilst trying to grow our customer base, volunteer drivers and transport ability.

2024

What a year this was! We purchased a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle. The first vehicle we were able to purchase with your own funds. Changes in the Trustee team brought opportunity to analyse where NCT CIO were, and how we would prepare for the next 50years. Optimistic as ever we applied proven management techniques to analyse this (PEST, SWOT analysis) Merging experience with new ideas. We produced a 5-year plan and set about updating the whole internal infrastructure. Introducing IT operating systems so that as the trustee team all work from home (keeping our funds directed to operating and maintaining our vehicles) we were able to see our policies, data and meet at regular times without driving across the county. We made NCT CIO stay fit to operate more efficiently and effectively in the 21st Century. Able to contact support the managers who were too far for us to travel were only a meeting away scheduled on the IT system. We are able to capture data easily at the touch of a button making records transparent and accessible to all. Changing our charity structure to a charity incorporated organisation was transformational as we now are able to look at fundraising, partnership working, expanding our core team who will continue the operating practices when trustees may change. Continuity and reliability. Our final update was for online banking. This makes our accounting and payment systems more compatible to the expectations of our customers and suppliers. Social media presence too is now part of our aim to increase our presence and reach to our community.

Today we have two 12-seater, wheelchair-accessible minibuses. Our current vehicles are diesel and modern vehicles like these can cost around £50,000+.  To a small charity like ours, this can be a daunting target. As we have completed 50+ years of service to the community, the next challenge for us would be to purchase an eco-friendlier transport vehicle, and this would mean a hybrid design vehicle.

If you can help us in any way, please contact us. We need to implement a continuity plan this year and are looking for skills which will take our charity forward.