A FLINTSHIRE charity that was left ‘crippled’ by the national lockdown has said they are back operating and helping the vulnerable across the county.

The Welsh Border Community Transport charity has been operating in Buckley since 1991.

Their main role is to transport elderly and vulnerable people in and around Flintshire to well-being, medicinal and other types of appointment.

Manager Ian McDermott said all of their services were halted during the national lockdown on March 23, but services slowly began operating again back in August.

He said: “When we started back in August we began doing prescription pick-up and deliveries and foodbank deliveries in partnership with FLVC.

“We want people to know that we are still here.

“Back in lockdown, everything was halted, all of my staff were furloughed, and I was working from home most of the time. We had to suspend all of our operations.

“This was a real shame because before this happened, we were really busy.

“It crippled us completely, we went from being very busy to having no work at all. Nearly all of our customers were shielding because they are elderly or vulnerable.

“Things are picking up now though we are operating at about 35 per cent to what we were doing before lockdown.”

More information can be found on the Facebook page or by contacting info@welshborderct.co.uk or 01244 544474

Mr McDermott added: “We do get money from Welsh Government but I’m worried that if this continues, we can’t go on forever not bringing in any money.

“I haven’t had to make anyone redundant and I’m hoping I don’t have to but I do worry that if there’s a second national lockdown and all my clients go back into shielding, then of course we will be back to where we were before.

“We will be operating just prescriptions and foodbank deliveries and I can’t sustain a workforce with that.

“What we do is important. We get people out and about who may not ordinarily be able to for a variety of different reasons.

“It helps their wellbeing and their mental help. It helps them with every day stuff that we take for granted such as travelling to the shop. We take away the worry of people getting from one place to the other.”