Burghfield and Mortimer Volunteer Bureau

What we need: Money

The annual expenditure of the Volunteer Bureau is at present nearly £14000. About two thirds of this goes to the drivers to cover the cost of taking their cars on some 1200 journeys: short ones, such as to Mortimer Surgery; longer ones to Reading, Basingstoke or Newbury and occasionally to hospitals farther afield. Our other expenditure includes rent for the VB's office at Burghfield Methodist Church, our telephone there, and insurance for our equipment.

Much of our funding comes from passenger contributions, in cash and in West Berkshire Local Authority travel tokens, which the Bureau can exchange for money. W. Berkshire and some of the nearby Parish Councils also give us helpful sums annually and individuals occasionally make donations; however, these sources alone do not cover our costs. In recent years, since West Berkshire put a time limit on the use of its travel tokens, an important additional source of revenue has been the gift of tokens that people cannot use during the year of validity. Provided they are given to the VB 15 days before their expiry date we can still claim cash for them.

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