Community Transport Week 2026 – Tim Houghton & Damian Hinds MP

One of the things Tim and Damian talked about was just how many other things depend on transport. We can have great services, activities and support available locally, but people still need to be able to physically get to them.

For someone who is older or less mobile, that might be a lift to their GP surgery, an exercise class or a community centre. It might simply be the chance to get out of the house, see other people and have a conversation.

Helping people stay connected can reduce isolation and support people to remain healthier, happier and independent in their own homes for longer, something which also fits closely with Hampshire County Council’s focus on prevention.

Community transport teams are increasingly working alongside social prescribers and other local services too. Rather than transport sitting on its own, it becomes part of a much wider package of support around someone. As Tim put it during the conversation, transport can be the “golden thread” running through all of those services. Without it, accessing everything else becomes that much harder.

Living in a rural area brings its own challenges. East Hampshire has villages and smaller communities where regular public transport simply isn’t as easy to provide as it is in larger towns and cities. And while we often associate community transport with older people, Transport or the lack of it affects people of all ages.

For a young person, not having access to a car could mean struggling to get to college, training or a first job. Young families can face similar difficulties getting where they need to be.

Could the next generation help keep us moving?

Talking of training or a first Job, we naturally look at where will the next generation of community transport drivers come from?

Volunteer drivers are a huge part of community transport. They help keep services affordable and make it possible for local people and community groups to get to everything from essential appointments to days out and activities. But, like many voluntary organisations, finding enough volunteers isn’t always easy.

There’s a real opportunity to get younger people involved.

Driving is a useful skill in its own right, and as community transport changes, including the introduction of more electric vehicles. there could be new ways to encourage younger drivers to get behind the wheel and volunteer in their communities.

Changes to driving licences mean younger drivers don’t automatically have the same entitlement to drive larger minibuses that previous generations did. That creates a very practical problem for community transport organisations, charities, schools and others that rely on minibuses, you may have someone willing to drive, but they don’t necessarily have the licence entitlement to do it.

It’s an issue the Community Transport Association has been campaigning on, and one where there is a wider conversation to be had about whether the rules still strike the right balance.

Nobody wants to compromise on safety. But equally, we need to make sure unnecessary barriers aren’t stopping willing volunteers from helping their communities.

It’s the people that make community transport different

Vehicles and routes are obviously important, but there’s another part of community transport that’s much harder to put on a timetable. It’s the human bit.

Drivers get to know their passengers. They know their names. They notice when someone hasn’t travelled for a while. There’s time for a hello and a conversation. For someone who lives alone, that interaction can matter enormously.

That’s something worth holding on to as we think about what transport in Hampshire might look like in the future.

The answer doesn’t have to be commercial buses or community transport or voluntary car schemes. They can work alongside each other. We could see smaller vehicles better suited to rural roads, more electric vehicles, demand-responsive services and vehicles that are accessible but still look and feel like the buses people are familiar with.

The important thing is making the different parts work together so that the passenger has a service that actually works for them.

Keeping East Hampshire connected

That joined-up approach is particularly important in places like East Hampshire. National conversations about transport can understandably focus on cities, railways and large bus networks. But rural communities have very different needs.

People still need to get into their town centres and high streets. They need to reach shops, services, jobs and activities. And those places need people to be able to reach them as well, for our local communities to thrive.

Through Hampshire’s wider bus partnership work, there’s an opportunity for commercial operators and community transport providers to work more closely together. They do different jobs and have different priorities, but they don’t have to operate in isolation from one another.