Members of the Cellan and Llanfair community transport project are crowdfunding to raise £500 to keep the project running as its ‘successful’ piloting phase comes to an end.

The Cellan community transport bus is a volunteer-led scheme which helps residents in the rural villages of Cellan and Llanfair Clydogau reach Lampeter, and from there, other parts of the county.

The project was set up by the 585 bus action group after the loss of standard bus services in the area on weekends, isolating many local residents who did not have a car, or could not drive for other reasons.

The project was supported by Llanfair Community Council, who helped fund a pilot scheme which launched on 30 November and has been considered a major success.

On a Gofundme page, volunteer driver, Martyn King, said: “The initial pilot service has been operating four services each Saturday for around one month, and this has been well supported, with local residents able to take advantage of Christmas late night shopping, local Lampeter Saturday Market, allow people to pick up prescriptions and to allow isolated elderly residents the opportunity to socialise with friends and family, and younger residents to get to work - all this helping to support local businesses.”

The organisers hope the fundraising will allow the service to not only run beyond January 2024, but run until June 2024. They also hope to expand the service, and use it as a model for other communities should they fundraise enough to do so.

Martyn added: “Our next phase is to extend the pilot through January 2024 until June 2024 inclusive. This will allow us to properly review the service through capturing further statistics of passenger numbers through different seasons from Winter, Spring and early Summer, and capture further valuable feedback from passengers and to possibly, if successful, use this pilot as a model for other communities who are experiencing cuts to their services.

“To allow us to continue to run the vital and clearly needed Community Transport from January until June, we estimate we will need about £500 in funding. If we raise more funds, then we will be able to complete the pilot scheme, and look to expand the service. If you are able to contribute even a small amount of money to this extremely important service, we would be very, very grateful.”

If you would like to donate to the project, you can find its Gofundme page here.