Yorkshire business HECK! buys a minibus and provide free bus rides to help combat loneliness and isolation in rural areas hailed a 'lifeline' by The Yorkshire Vet's Peter Wright

Yorkshire Post

The sausage firm, Heck!, based in Bedale, has bought and donated a nine-seater bus after residents said they felt cut off and lonely.  The new bus will be freely available for local residents to book to go to the markets, days out, appointments or just for a social outing.  The initiative aims to help stamp out loneliness and boost business support in surrounding areas. This was inspired after the Covid pandemic left many feeling alone and vulnerable in rural communities.  The first trip travelled to the market town of Masham on Tuesday, October 8 and The Yorkshire Vet’s own Peter Wright joined residents on the bus. Peter has approved the initiative and believes it is a lifeline for rural residents.  CREDIT: Glen Minikin

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00:00I think the bus is a great venture to be put on by HEC. The bus purely and simply will

00:14be a lifeline for some people, where they can get into the local towns, they can go

00:18and do some shopping, and more importantly than that, they can mix with people. I genuinely

00:24believe that there is far more isolation and despair in the rural communities than

00:32there ever is in urban areas. For one simple reason, if people are feeling a bit low and

00:39they want to get out and mix with people in a city, they can jump on a bus. I think the

00:45community ambassador Becky at HEC, along with the team, recognised from putting short events

00:53on in the local community, in the village hall, that it would be a good idea if they

00:59had transport. The HEC minibus was a brainchild of Becky's, whereby people could be picked

01:08up and taken into the local towns. The beauty of this bus is its flexibility in how it can

01:14be used. It can be used with a driver, where people can come into the towns, but it can

01:20also be booked by people to go out on a trip. That may be a school trip, it may be just

01:28a function that some people want to go to, they may even want to go to the seaside as

01:33a group, who knows. And I think the beauty of this minibus is the flexibility and how

01:38people can use it. It's there for the benefit of the community. Getting on the bus was wonderful.

01:44We're beautifully driven in here, I've got to say. What was particularly noticeable as

01:49we came in on the bus, everyone was chattering, everyone was engaged in conversation. And

01:55that's something, if people had been at home on their own, that wouldn't have happened.

01:59So I've got to say, it fulfils not only a requirement of transportation, but in itself,

02:07it's a little social bubble in the minibus itself. And also, the other thing, from the

02:12other point of view, is that this also is beneficial to the local small businesses as

02:17well, who benefit from these people getting out, rather than just putting an order in

02:22through a neighbour from the local supermarket. So in this situation, everybody wins. I think

02:28it's absolutely fantastic that HECC have grasped this opportunity, they've listened to what

02:34the local community want, and they've come up with it big style. They're giving people

02:39what they need, and this is what community spirit is all about. Congratulations to HECC

02:46for doing what they've done, and I just hope this is repeated amongst other rural communities

02:52over North Yorkshire.

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