The Lords Taverners charity donates Ford Transit Minibuses to special schools
The Lord's Taverners charity is putting 26 new, specially-adapted Ford Transit Minibuses on the road to help improve the lives of young people with disabilities and special educational needs.
The charity has provided more than 1,100 minibuses to special schools since its programme started in 1976, and will be donating a new minibus every fortnight during 2014.
The Lord's Taverners' Ford Transit Minibuses are used to transport children many of whom use wheelchairs to and from schools and colleges, helping them to participate in sporting activities that would otherwise be off-limits, including wheelchair basketball and table cricket.
Director of charitable programmes for the Lord's Taverners, Nicky Pemberton, said: "We provide special educational needs schools with the opportunity to meet their transport needs. A minibus typically costs between £54,000 and £58,000 by the time it has been converted for wheelchair access and our programme enables a school to own its own vehicle usually they make a contribution of around 25 per cent and we fund the rest.
"The minibuses operate for anything up to 10 years and, as we give away around 30 of them a year, there are probably between 210 and 250 Lord's Taverners' minibuses on the roads of Britain and the Ford Transit is the ideal vehicle for the job."
Ford regional account business manager Sally Overington said: "The Lord's Taverners does great work to help children with special educational needs to get out and about to broaden their experiences and horizons, and it is great that Ford can assist with these efforts."
by: Danielle Bagnall