A community transport scheme will be forced to scale down a vital expansion in its services due to increased fuel charges.

Tendring Community Transport faces finding an extra £1,000 a year because of the rise in prices announced by the Government in the budget.

It already has fuel and running costs of £30,000 a year to meet the needs of its growing list of clients.

And co-ordinator Theresa Coyne said having to find the extra money will hit them hard.

"We have been devastated by the increase - just like the hauliers," she said.

"The only way we will be able to foot the bill will be to reduce the improvements to the service which are desperately needed in this area. There is nowhere else the cash can come from."

Last year volunteer drivers clocked up a staggering 36,336 passenger journeys and logged 690,384 passenger miles.

One of the main objectives is to take the service further out into the rural areas to help people get into the towns.

The service started up with just one secondhand minibus in 1993 and five volunteer drivers. It now has eight vehicles, and another 20 owned by organisations which are in the pool it can draw on.

Mrs Coyne said commercial bus operators did not have to pay excise duty on fuel - but community schemes did.

The Community Transport Association has been lobbying the Government in an effort to get concessions, but so far it has not been successful.

"We were hoping that we would be able to get some kind of rebate and be exempt from the duty, but things do not look good as the Government is not budging an inch," she added.

"All we can hope for is that they will reconsider and at least put us on the same footing as commercial operators. All we are asking is that they help us to help others."

There are still around 350 people waiting for the service that Tendring Community Transport provides across the district.

It helps people with mobility problems who are unable to get out to do shopping, keep appointments at hospitals and doctors' surgeries, visit friends and relatives, and access recreational, educational and social facilities.

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