Isolated, cut-off and far from vital services – valley communities have been hardest hit in recent years from endless bus cuts with regular services all but disappearing.

For the elderly who often have no other form of transport, it has been a bitter blow.

Taxi fares are an expensive option and quickly become unaffordable when frequent trips to the GP or hospital are needed.

The lucky ones may be able to rely on their families if they live nearby but they worry about being a burden and long for their former independence. 

In one small community in the upper Amman Valley, county councillor Sonia Reynolds said people told her of feeling trapped in their homes.

The issue was so serious, she designed a community car scheme for the villages of Cwmgors, Gwaun-cae-Gurwen, Lower Brynamman and Tairgwaith, applying for £14,500 funding from local grant pots to match the £10,000 she gave from her Neath Port Talbot Council Member’s Community Fund.

In February it will be a year since the project started.

And it’s been life-changing for those using it.

Jackie Domingo from Cwmgors said: “Up to about three years ago I was able-bodied and walked the mile to Gwaun to do my shopping and then walked back again, the bus services had already finished by then.

“But I’m temporarily disabled now and can’t walk properly.

“We’ve lost everything here, the bus service and taxi service – they said to us ‘ask your friends to take you’.

“I’m not going to do that – they have their own lives and I have got my pride.

“I’ll either struggle on or go without.

“I did my shopping online, I hardly left the village for a year to 18 months because I couldn’t get out of the place.

“Then this scheme started up – it has been a godsend, a great boon to the community in so many ways.

“By taking single people and groups of people, it enables us to socialise and keep up with what’s going on outside our village instead of being cooped up in our homes.

“It’s just nice to get out and see the rest of the world.

“We are so grateful for it – the transport is good quality, it’s well-maintained and the drivers are friendly, professional people.

“They help people in and out of the vehicle and help them to the front door, they’re so caring.

“I cant praise them enough.”

The scheme is seen as a model project for providing transport in the valleys.

It comes under the larger community transport organisation DANSA which stands for the Dulais, Afan, Neath, Swansea and Amman Valley areas, and also runs other cars and buses.

While DANSA runs a couple of buses through Cwmgors onto Swansea, local residents have been left unable to get to nearby Ammanford or local surgeries or hospitals.

Sacha Petrie who has led the project from the start says the car is available for people who wish to use it for a range of trips, whether shopping, going to the hairdressers or medical appointments.

She said: “Technically it requires 48 hours notice to book but in reality I could get 20 minutes notice, it just depends on what people need to do.

“We don’t specifically put a limit on how far we go – we generally say people can have the car and the driver for an hour-and-a-half otherwise the car needs to come back because you can’t really leave the car sitting in any one location for too long.

“It’s such a wonderful thing that with the help of volunteers we are able to provide this vital service to the community – without it there would be a lot of people really isolated and cut off.”

Recently, two elderly people were able to go on their first holiday in ages after using the car to take them to Neath early one morning to catch the coach and collect them on their return.

If three or four people are going to the same event or in the same direction, they can each get picked up enroute with just one fare to share.

Around 35 people use the car on a weekly basis with another 50 to 100 registered on the booking system.

There are now six volunteer drivers with the Community Transport Association providing the necessary training.

Standard rates apply for set journeys such as the £6 return trip to Ammanford or Pontardawe, or the £13 fee for a return trip to Morriston Hospital.

Cllr Reynolds, the ward councillor for Gwaun-cae-Gurwen, said: “I had the idea and pulled it together but it needed someone who had the time, energy and commitment to push it forward.

“We recruited Sacha as a community transport development co-ordinator to lead the scheme – she’s worked like a Trojan.

“The need is through the roof – there’s lots of people that now rely on it for their wellbeing and network.

“We have got more calls then we can cope with for hospital appointments – volunteers are using their own cars on occasions to take people because the the community car is everywhere at once.”

Cllr Reynolds said the idea was to collaborate with DANSA but take more ownership and control of the vehicle locally than the organisation could provide.

She said: “The car is owned by DANSA but for various reasons it wasn’t being used – the drivers weren’t being recruited because there was no-one locally to recruit them and it wasn’t easy to use – people had to first find out about it and then book through them and become a member.

“The organisation is at the top of the Dulais Valley and it just meant the car sat there and didn’t do much.

“I had meetings with them, the local authority’s transport team and the  Community Transport Association.

“We have to make transport available for our communities – people can’t get to the doctors, they can’t do the basic things they need to.

“People were telling me taxi fares were out of their reach and were extortionate – on one occasion one woman was quoted £20 to go from Cwm Gors to the doctors surgery a mile away – she was having to go quite regularly and she couldn’t afford it.”

DANSA pays for the upkeep of the car, the overall maintenance and covers driver training with every payment coming in for the car going through the organisation.

Cllr Reynolds said there is however a need to make the scheme – which is only funded for one year – sustainable.

There are plans to work with Awel Aman Tawe, a community renewable energy charity, with the possibility of purchasing a couple of electric cars.

Funding is also being sought to expand the scheme to cover nearby Cwmllynfell.

Janet James, 73, said the community would be lost without the service.

She shares the car with two friends, going to Ammanford weekly from Cwmgors to do shopping.

She said: “I lost my husband last year and he was driving.

“One of my daughters lives about 11 miles away but I can’t depend on her all the time.

“Sacha is wonderful, she fetches us, takes to Ammanford and drops us home again.”

Mrs Domingo, 70, says Sacha has become a part of residents’ lives.

Mainly relying on the community car to get to medical appointments, she has been thankful to have it available to make a trip to the hairdressers and take her cat to the vets.

She said: “Sacha doesn’t just take you to a place and drop you off, she actually waits.

“She says she’ll be there when you come out and she is, she’s always there.

“It’s just a wonderful service.”