Our Company Structure & History

About Us

Social Enterprise and Voluntary Organisation

Llanwrtyd Wells Community Transport (LWCT) is a not-for-profit Social Enterprise. There is a full-time General Manager, full and part-time staff, and some wonderful volunteers. It is governed by a Board of Directors and has been operating since 2002. Since 2012 it has been incorporated as a Limited Company, there’s no share capital or shareholders.

Areas Where We Provide Community Transport and Other Services

LWCT provides services for residents in the mid-Powys area of Wales, centred around Britain’s smallest town Llanwrtyd Wells. The areas we cover include, but are not limited to, Abergwesyn, Beulah, Cefn Gorwydd, Cilmery, Garth, Llandrindod Wells, Llangammarch Wells, Llanwrtyd Wells, and Tirabad.

The Problem with Community Transport

This area of Wales, adjacent to what some call the ‘Green Desert of Wales’, is very rural and sparsely populated. There is very little public transport. Getting to the shops, hospitals or other services can mean a long journey, making it particularly challenging to operate a community transport service here. We need to subsidise the cost of community transport enough to make it affordable to our service-users. With few grants available, we need to keep thinking outside-the-box!

Regular Income-streams

LWCT is funded in part by grant funding (around 6% in 2020) and in part by our own efforts. Income from the following activities helps us to support the Community Transport and other services that we offer as well as builds good working relationships with the local authority and other sector specific organisations: –

Events Recycling service

We are registered as a fully qualified broker for recycling and waste management. If you’re organising an event, please see our services under Events Recycling.

Rural School Buses

Powys County Council contracts LWCT to manage and operate some of the Council’s most rural school transportation routes.

Office and Vehicle Depot

Since 2020 our administrative centre and vehicle depot has been located in the town of Builth Wells, because suitable premises were available there.

Collaboration and Partnerships

We work with other services, agencies and partners to strengthen and improve local services and reach the most people across the mid-Powys area.

About Our Drivers, Qualifications, Training and Vehicles

We only use MiDAS Trained, Registered and Certified Drivers. For persons with disabilities we also have MiDAS Accessibility Trained, Registered and Certified Drivers. MiDAS is the “Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme” you can find out more about it at Community Transport Association.

We have vehicles with easy access for both elderly and disabled, with assistance with boarding the vehicle and exiting the vehicle.

LWCT ensures that all of our volunteers and staff are fully trained and certified in: Fire Evacuation, First aid, MPV Voluntary Car Driving, MiDAS and Equality and Diversity.

Brief History

As an organisation, we can trace our origins back to 2002. The General Manager was originally employed by the Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations (PAVO), and we maintain close links between LWCT and PAVO. It was quickly realised that grant funding alone wouldn’t be enough to subsidise the cost of transport to make it sufficiently affordable in this rural and sparsely populated area. In 2007, we received funding from Powys Zero Waste to implement an ‘action research project’ and the Events Recycling services were started. We became registered as professional dealers/brokers of controlled waste with a commitment to protect our environment. For some years glass waste, from local events, was made into cullet (sharp free pieces of glass) to either be sold in its raw state or mixed with resins to create garden ornaments. In 2020, we moved to a new depot and production of glass cullet was ceased because it wasn’t producing a worthwhile profit, however, the Events Recycling continues and brings in much-needed income.

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