About Hour Car

Hour Car (Hebden bridge) is a car share scheme based in the Calder Valley, West Yorkshire. It is a Members' Co-operative owned and run by its members with in line management from the Ground Floor Project (A registered charity and a 'not for profit' company, limited by guarantee ).

The scheme is based at Salem Community Centre, Central Street, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire and is membership only, with any excess over operational costs being reinvested in the scheme.

Objectives

Short term:

• To provide an efficient, low cost alternative to personal car ownership for residents of Hebden Bridge and the surrounding area within Calderdale.
• To help reduce local traffic congestion and parking problems by reducing the need for member families to have a personal or second car.

Medium term:

• To reduce traffic pollution by utilising alternative, less polluting fuels in the scheme's vehicles, and adapting those vehicles if necessary.
• To work towards providing access to a range of vehicles, enabling members to use the vehicle most efficient for and suited to their needs.
• To work towards providing appropriate vehicles and additional accessories / equipment to ensure the scheme is equally accessible to all eligible members of the community including those with disabilities, young children, and those on low incomes.
• To examine the environmental impact of replacement vehicles in terms of manufacture, recyclability and emissions.
• To work in partnership with local groups to increase transport awareness locally, create a prominent community profile for car sharing initiatives and to try to negotiate appropriate agreements with public transport companies as part of an integrated local transport initiative to reduce car usage and dependence locally.

Long term:

• To be a sustainable, financially viable and respected professional organisation.
• To continue to highlight the environmental and financial benefits of car sharing and ride sharing.
• To help and encourage communities in other rural and urban areas within Calderdale to establish similar schemes.

Management Structure

The scheme is supervised directly by a management committee consisting of six elected members of Hour Car (appointed annually at an Annual General Meeting) and two representatives appointed by the Ground Floor Council of Management.

This scheme is semi-autonomous and the management committee will have responsibility for the overall and day-to-day running of the scheme. A representative from the Hour Car management committee has an automatic place on the Ground Floor Project's Council of Management and the scheme will be answerable to the parent organisation for the purposes of complying with charitable and company law, and to ensure compliance with any grant conditions.

History

The concept of a local car or ride share scheme was first voiced in a local transport forum set up by Hebden Royd Town Council in 1998. As a result of their recommendations, in 1999 the Hebden Royd Town Council commissioned a feasibility study investigating the need for a car and/or ride sharing initiative locally .

122 local people were surveyed with 71% of those questioned living in either Hebden Bridge or Mytholmroyd. The report also looked at the feasibility of integrating a ride share into Calderdale LETs.

The report demonstrated a need for such a scheme with 82.9% of those questioned expressing an interest in a car and/or ride share scheme though the report felt that further investigation was necessary to prove the financial viability of a car share scheme.

The report revealed the following factors were the most likely to attract members:

• Safety
• Vehicle availability
• Reliability
• Expense
• Larger vehicles for families and people with disabilities

This report also highlighted the following

• the main reason for travelling into Hebden Bridge from Mytholmroyd and/or surrounding areas was for minor shopping (75.6%) and work (26.8%);
• the main reason for visiting Halifax was work (70.7%), major shopping (17%), minor shopping (8.5%) and sports (9.8%);
• the main reason for travelling for Mytholmroyd from Hebden Bridge and/or surrounding areas was for school (78%), work (25.6%) or to do minor shopping (15.9%).

Unfortunately the proposal was never developed any further.

The need for rural car share schemes have been highlighted in a number of recent reports: The Rural White Paper outlined the need for 'new pilot schemes and funding for car sharing schemes and car clubs in rural areas...'

In March 2001 the Countryside Agency in recognition of the need for rural car sharing schemes agreed to fund two development workers (one of whom is based in Yorkshire) to assist in the establishment of rural car share clubs.

In April 2001 the Community car Share Network put together a report highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of Rural Car Share Clubs.

In May 2001 representatives from the Ground Floor Project discussed the possibility of establishing a rural car share. A working party was formed to investigate a way forward and a proposal presented to the trustees of the Ground Floor Project.

In June 2001 Ground Floor Car Share (later Hour Car) was formed under the Ground Floor Project's charitable umbrella and a shadow committee formed from interested groups and individuals answerable to the charities' Council of Management. The shadow committee consists of seven people made of potential personal and community users. The aim is that all but one of these representatives will stand down as the scheme becomes active to enable users of the scheme to take over the running of the scheme themselves.

The shadow committee agreed that a basic tenet of the scheme must be to ensure that all scheme vehicles are capable of utilising environmentally friendlier fuels (if possible) and a sub-group was established to investigate the best solution including LPG and bio-diesel. Discussions are begun as to the feasibility of manufacturing our own bio-fuel locally using either oil-seed crops and/or using recycled vegetable oil.

An initial advertising campaign was launched to assess the demand both through the local paper (Hebden Bridge Times) and through the environmental/alternative economy networks within the region. The scheme was initially publicised on the 20th July 2001 in the Hebden Bridge Times and again on the 28th September. A simple leaflet was sent out to 350 LETs and Green Currency members in July/August and an article published in the Alternative Times as a follow-up to earlier preparatory articles such as '15 ways to cut your car use' and 'cleaner cars, cleaner fuels'.

This resulted in interest from a number of prospective users who showed an initial interest in the scheme.

In September 2001, Ground Floor Car Share joined what was then the Community Car Share Network (CCSN).

The principal interest so far had been from the local environmental/alternative economy networks and primarily from people living within the Hebden Royd townships, however residents from nearby Wadsworth and Dodnaze estate had also showed interest.

The original feasibility study and our initial advertising campaign have been such that we believed it warranted the establishment of a car share scheme locally.

In November 2001 Ground Floor Car Share was successful in being selected as one of CCSN's pilot projects and work began on a feasibility study funded under the SEED Programme.

The results of this funding bid were announced in March 2002, three-months funding was released in May 2001 and work began on recruiting a development worker (Tony Webber). A second feasibility study was undertaken including a marketing study (by Sus Co-operative Ltd) and a comparative analysis of the various management and operational structures for establishing a rural car share scheme that is appropriate to the needs of the region. The SEED funded study ended at the beginning of September 2002.

In January 2003 Ground Floor Project applied for initial funding from both the Countryside Agency and the SEED Programme. In July 2003 we received word that we had been successful and work has commenced on setting the scheme up.

The Scheme went active in January 2004 with two vehicles, and a third was added in September that year. We are currently accepting membership from people living in and around the Upper Valley of Calderdale, West Yorkshire.

At the end of March 2005 funding from both SEED and the Countryside Agency came to an end and Hour Car became a Members' Co-operative.

We added a fourth vehicle in February 2006 and a fifth in March 2007.

About Ground Floor

Ground Floor was first established in 1981 and registered as a charity and as a company limited by guarantee in 1984. The charity oversees the car share project, which will be not-for-profit community enterprise and employs the staff.

Mission statement

Ground Floor Project aims to promote positive community action that increases opportunities and benefits for all disadvantaged people living in the Upper Calder Valley.

To this end, the Ground Floor Project is actively involved in providing, developing, supporting and sustaining a wide range of community led and self-help initiatives within the region.

History

The Project was initiated in 1981 by a group of local people, in response to a lack of adequate community provision in the Hebden Bridge area, particularly for young people.

The aims quickly grew to encompass other disadvantaged groups, including the elderly, unwaged, single parents and people with both physical and learning disabilities.

A small group working voluntary with young people in the town identified the need for a building, which could provide a focus for various community initiatives and activities and would be fully accessible. The lease on the rear ground floor of the Trades Club building was secured in 1981 and the original Ground Floor Centre officially opened in the autumn of 1983.

As early as 1984, the Project was running into difficulty over the shortage of space and work commenced on building an extension, which eventually housed the office, computer room, shower, storage cupboards and foyer entrance. This was completed in 1986.

The ground Floor Project also became a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee in 1984.

During the initial years the Ground Floor Project established several area-wide projects working throughout the Upper Valley as well as developing the Centre into a widely used community resource. Initially funded by the Voluntary Projects Programme, this support came to an end in 1989. At this time the Ground Floor Project applied to Calderdale MBC who agreed to take over funding the core community provision. During the VPP period, the Project was staffed by up to nine staff, each involved in specific pieces of work. Calderdale MBC agreed to fund a full-time Centre Manager, a Community Development Worker and Resource Manager, as well as a part-time administrator and staffing to enable the Youth Club to run two nights a week. However, as staff left they were not replaced and eventually the entire Centre's full-time positions were consolidated into just one full-time and one part-time post.

This reduction in staffing led to a change in direction for the Ground Floor and the Project went through a period of consolidation where it focused the majority of its energy into developing facilities and groups within the Community Centre.

In 1994 the Project again became active in developing a wide range of community resources serving the whole region. In partnership with other local community groups, Ground Floor was instrumental in developing a variety of independently run community initiatives. One such was an umbrella group to develop out of school provision and resource in the Upper Valley. The centre continues to host two of the out of school clubs. Ground Floor was also a major force behind the establishment of a number of organisations. These included the Calder Valley Credit Union, a Community-led Credit Union covering the whole of the Calder Valley and the Pennine Play & Leisure Library, a equipment loan scheme for people over five with special needs which included a sensory room which was located in the Vale Centre.

We were also instrumental in helping to set up a number of local environmental projects.

Since 1995 the Council of Management had realised that the original centre was unable to provide all of the space and resource the project needed and had undertaken to look at alternative premises in the area.

By 1998, despite looking at several possible locations, we were no nearer finding a home. That same year the lease on the previous centre ended and the project was unable to afford to renew.

The Project's Council of Management made the decision to move out and re-examine one of our previous choices, the old Luomo Mill on Central Street.

The Project was temporally housed in Youth House while negotiations were underway with the Mill's owners, Yorkshire Co-op. In August 1998 a lease was signed and work commenced on renovating the mill. The capital was being raised even as the work was underway. Many sleepless nights were spent as the renovation work was phased in, while waiting for money to became available. The middle floor was completed first and the Project officially moved in May 1999. Volunteers did much of the work on completing the upper floor and the heating system was only completely installed a few months ago. Space for a lift has been allocated but we have had to delay applying for grants to pay for the installation until we have managed to obtain the necessary revenue to run it year on year. This is still an issue that we are trying to resolve.

Today, Salem Community Centre is fully operational, with the main office overflowing (despite being four times larger than our previous office space) due to the increased workload. The cafe is kept busy while the three halls are in full use every weekday night. We became an entrust registered body last year to further support our environmental objectives and today in excess of 59 groups covering a wide spectrum of community activity are supported by the Ground Floor Project.