CHRISTMAS 2013 NEWSLETTER

sedcat (South East Dorset

Community Accessible Transport)

3-5 Palmerston Road

Boscombe, Bournemouth BH1 4HN

Tel/fax : 01202 399700/534027

Visit our website:

www.sedcat.org.uk

Email us:

info@sedcat.org.uk

Contact us at:

sedcat : 01202 399700/534027

BAT Bus booking line : 01202/399771

Community Cars : 01202/309433

Boscombe Shopmobility : 01202/399700

Castlepoint Shopmobility:01202/598295

Registered Charity No. 1146311

sedcat are bringing Shopmobility to Bournemouth

Town Centre on Saturday 21st December 2013.

Shopmobility will be available all day from 10.00 am to 4 pm to

help everyone with their Christmas shopping needs. Scooters and

wheelchairs will be available at the Glen Fern Car Park (see map

below). Just look out for the BAT Bus which will be parked up in

the car park with scooters and wheelchairs for hire.

Mother Christmas Sue, and her elvish helpers, Nick and Alison, will

be on hand to offer help and assistance.

If you have difficulty in ge:ng around

Bournemouth Town Centre, now is

your chance to book a scooter or

wheelchair and experience the

Christmas spirit in Bournemouth and

do some last minute Christmas

shopping. Why not bring the grandchildren down and take them

ska<ng on the Ice Rink in the Gardens?, or you can browse around

the Christmas Market in the Square and

enjoy a fes<ve market offering authen<c

seasonal gi@s and tradi<onal yule<de

foods from German, Bri<sh and other

European cra@smen and merchants,

while a tradi<onal Victorian carousel will

provide fun for all ages. For more

informa<on about what is going on in

Bournemouth over the Christmas period you can look online at :

hCp://www.makeitbournemouth.co.uk/

The Glen Fern Car Park has two disabled parking bays and

reasonably priced parking charges. The Car Park is located in Glen

Fern Road and is convenient for Old Christchurch Road and Town

Centre shops, bars and restaurants; you can also easily access the

Gardens. Post code for Sat Nav use is BH1 2LZ.

To book your scooter or wheelchair, and avoid disappointment on

the day, please telephone :

01202 399700 or 01202 598295 or email: info@sedcat.org.uk

◊ The last BAT Bus shopping trip will operate on Monday 23rd December

◊ The BAT Bus service will resume on Monday 30th December (bookings will be taken on

Tuesday 24th December). Closed New Years Day. Bookings for the 2nd January will be

taken on Tuesday 31st December 2013

◊ The Community Cars booking line will be closed from Friday 20th December and will

re-open on Thursday 2nd January 2014

◊ Shopmobility will close at 1 pm Tuesday 24th December and will re-open Saturday

28th December. Closed New Years Day.

The Staff, Volunteers and Trustees at sedcat would like to take this opportunity

of wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year.

sedcat Christmas opening 9mes for

the BAT BUS, Community Cars and Shopmobility

A fond farewell to sedcat’s popular BAT Bus driver Bob Cox For many years, Bob Cox has been a favourite driver on the BAT Bus Saturday ou<ngs where he has always

been greatly appreciated for all of his kindness, pa<ence and good humour. Bob has decided that it is now

<me to spend more <me with his family and he has sadly decided to stop driving the BAT Bus on a Saturday.

The good news is that Bob will be back on the Xmas ou<ng driving one of the BAT Buses; just look out for one

of the Xmas Elves in the driver’s seat and you may find that it is Bob.

Bob is pictured above standing in front of the tree surrounded by his friends from the BAT Bus. The photo was

taken during a recent ou<ng to the Green Dragon in the New Forest earlier this year.

sedcat Community Cars

bookings up by 50% Throughout the year we have been busy recrui<ng

more Volunteer Community Car Drivers and now

have more drivers available who hopefully will be

living close to you. The booking office for Community

Cars is open Monday - Friday between the hours

1000 am to 4 pm. Please understand that currently

the booking team are taking more and more

bookings, if the telephone booking number

01202 309433 is engaged, please try again later.

“We both know that some�mes our booking line is

busy” said Alison and Judith “but we are doing our

very best to try and find drivers for our members. We

would like to say how grateful we are to all of our

team of dedicated and pa�ent drivers, without their

care and considerable input Community Cars would

not exist. Please be aware that our drivers are all

volunteers who give their �me freely and only ask

that their petrol expenses are paid”.

We now have …. In BH1 we have Lynda ... In BH2 we

have Miriam … in BH3 we have Peter (Wood) ... In

BH4 we have John (Alman), Jerry and Glenda … in

BH6 we have Denise, Nick and Val… in BH7 we have

John (Larkham), Terry and Paul… in BH8 we have

Susan, Dorothy, Diana, Ron and Delia …

in BH9 we have Carole, Bill and Peter (Robinson) …

in BH10 we have John (Sampson), Brian and Sylvia …

in BH11 we have Trevor and Mike … in BH12 we have

Ann ...in BH17 we have Elizabeth .. In BH22 we have

Peter (Rule) and in BH23 we have Ray.

The Home Library Service Book Club which is held

every month at Charminister Library. In the photo

above are Delia (sedcat volunteer driver), Margaret

and Jean (two of the book club members) and

Adrian Bramley (Home Library Service Manager)

Volunteers are s<ll needed to join

sedcat Calling all Volunteer Drivers ….. if you are reading

this and know of someone who

might be interested in joining the

sedcat team of Volunteer

drivers please ask them to call

either Alison or Judith on

01202 534027 or ask them to

email info@sedcat.org.uk .

Even a few hours a week can

make a big difference to people’s

lives and help them to con<nue

living in their homes with

independence and dignity.

Volunteers needed for Shopmobility……. If you are interested in voluntary work, why not

come down to Shopmobility and help out? Both

Boscombe and Castlepoint Shopmobility are ac<vely

recrui<ng volunteers to help in each of the units.

Lisa has recently joined the team of volunteers at

Castlepoint Shopmobility “I really enjoy my few hours

which I spend at Shopmobility welcoming the BAT

Bus members to the unit and making them cups of

tea and coffee and also helping Shopmobility

members.” said Lisa “ As I suffer with a slight

disability myself, I know how important it is for

people to be able to visit the shopping centre and use

a scooter or wheelchair to help them shop.”

sedcat (South East Dorset Community Accessible Transport) Charity No. 1146311 : Company No. 7800298

Registered Office: The Link, 3 - 5 Palmerston Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth. BH1 4HN

◊ Register at www.easyfundraising.org.uk

◊ When asked to choose your cause, select sedcat

◊ Then con<nue to your chosen retailer and start shopping

Easyfunding have over 2,700 top retailers and over

55,000 good causes.

The retailer will donate back a percentage of your shopping

bill to easyfundraising and this will then be given to sedcat.

This is an excellent way of suppor<ng your local charity and

benefi<ng your community. If you do not use online

shopping yourself, please spread the word to your friends,

families and neighbours.

Raise dona9ons for sedcat when

you shop online For those of you who shop online you can

now help sedcat by nomina<ng them as

the charity you wish to support.

Top 9ps for keeping warm this winter:

As energy bills rise, do you feel nervous about

turning up the thermostat at home? Well, take

heart, because there are lots of things you can do,

so read on and look a@er yourself.

Make yourself warmer

◊ Wear several thin layers, rather than

one thick layer. This is because they trap warm air

close to the body

◊ Draw your curtains, as soon as it gets dark to stop

the heat escaping and the draughts coming in

◊ Your body keeps warm by burning food you've

eaten, so make sure you have regular hot meals

that contain carbs, such as potatoes, pasta, bread

and rice.

◊ If you’re si:ng down, a shawl or blanket will

provide extra warmth. You should also try to keep

your feet up, because air is cooler at ground level.

◊ Wear warm clothes in bed. When it’s really

cold, wear thermal underwear and bed socks.

Some longer-term things you can do

to help ward off the winter chill

◊ Have your hea<ng system serviced and chimney

swept

◊ Check your water stopcock is working properly

◊ Get a keyhole cover – it should only cost a couple

of pounds and will help keep the draughts out in

cold weather.

◊ Fit thermal linings to your curtains if you can – this

will also help to keep the heat in

◊ Check out the benefits and grants available to help

with insula<on and energy efficiency, such as cavity

wall insula<on

◊ Stock up now on BaCeries for your smoke alarm

◊ Make sure that you have cold and flu medicines, as

well as any repeat prescrip<ons tucked away in

your kitchen cupboard

◊ Pasta and rice will last through the winter months,

so stock up now

And finally, Spring will be with us very soon

bringing back some warmer weather!

The Talbot Village Trust sedcat are delighted to announce that we have

been successful in being awarded a grant from

the Talbot Village Trust.

We are extremely grateful to the Talbot Village

Trust, as with the money raised last year from

the Sponsored Cycle Ride to Sardinia and various

fundraising events throughout the year, there

will now be sufficient funds to purchase a new

accessible vehicle. This vehicle will help our

members who are wheelchair bound and who

are currently unable to access local services

unless they pay for an expensive accessible taxi.

The car will also be used to supplement the BAT

Bus as the vehicle will have extra seats to

accommodate passengers as well as one

wheelchair user.

More informa9on about the new vehicle

will be announced in the next newsleCer.