This January marks the 40th anniversary of the formation of the DVG back on the 9th January 1986. I hope your readers will find this an interesting article about a charity that has made over 1300 trips for Downland residents to attend their medical appointments in our last financial year. The ‘running rate’ for this financial year looks like we will exceed last year’s total.         Joe Clerkin

The Downland Volunteer Group (DVG) is unique. It was founded by sixteen-year-olds. This statement was made by Mrs. Deb Jeffs, one of the founder members of the DVG. In 1984-85 pupils at The Downs School in Compton with their teacher, Steve Poole, conducted a social studies project on communities. They looked at the contribution of voluntary organisations. Many of The Downs School pupils came from the number of small villages situated just north of Newbury (the Downland area) and it was clear that each of these villages had groups and facilities that operated in isolation from other villages. The pupils decided to try and bring these various groups together, so a series of lunches were arranged. They invited parish councillors, scout and guide leaders, local clergy and social services to create a coordinating body to help link these various groups. So the Downland Volunteer Group was born, and the school catchment area became the area of operation.

In 1985 a management committee was appointed consisting of seven local volunteers, a teacher, two pupils from The Downs School along with representatives from Newbury Social Services and the Community Council of Berkshire. The chairman was a local councillor (Peter Robinson) which gave some authority to their efforts.

The DVG set up their office in a room in the Compton scout hut in which they managed to fit in a desk, a phone and later an answer phone machine.

Their phone number was Compton 394, which later became 578394 and is still the office phone number today. A Rota of office volunteers worked two hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. A prize from the Shell Village Venture competition and donations from Thames Valley Police and various parish councils helped get the Group started.

The Downland Volunteer Group officially started on the 9th January 1986. Initially it operated like a good neighbourhood scheme helping residents with gardening, DIY jobs and transport.  Given the number of small villages spread across the area and the lack of regular public transport, helping residents attend their medical appointments became the main focus of their activities. Finding volunteers was a challenge. Alongside this service, with the help of The Downs School, they also began creating a directory of services within the Downland area.

At the first AGM held in November 1986, Mrs Deb Jeffs became the Chairman supported by Sue Fletcher as Vice Chairman and Dave Morris, the local police officer, as the Treasurer. In the first year the DVG made 179 trips to surgeries, hospitals, dentists etc. At the time they were careful not to clash with the Hospital Car Service but to fill the gaps that service did not offer. They had 21 volunteers in this first year. Publicity was their big challenge, creating awareness of their service and recruiting volunteers to drive or manage the office. Their financial situation was good, any shortfall between what clients donated and what drivers claimed for their mileage was covered by donations from parish councils. Again, The Downs School continued to support the DVG efforts with students distributing leaflets in their villages and putting up posters promoting the service.

As the DVG grew it was decided to draw up a Constitution to enable the Group to achieve charitable status. It became a registered charity in 1989.

By 1990 the DVG car service was achieving over 500 trips a year. Also, in that year it became involved with the Handybus service. At that time the Handybus was owned by Newbury District Council and was used each morning to take patients to the Downland surgeries. In the afternoons the DVG could organise shopping trips for residents in various villages or allow other organisations to hire it.

The DVG has always worked closely with The Downland Practice and in 1995 one of their doctors was voted onto their committee. This close relationship still exists today.

After 11 years working out of the scout hut in Compton the DVG office moved into a room in the Compton surgery where it remains today.

In 1998 the DVG helped set up a monthly Lunch Club supported by a £100 donation from ‘Help the Aged’ for residents to attend on the last Friday of the month. Many of those involved in the organisation were also DVG volunteers, preparing a freshly cooked two course meal for mainly elderly residents, with  DVG drivers offering transport for free. Twenty-seven years later it is still going strong and with two of the original volunteers still involved!

By the turn of the millennium, the DVG was exceeding 1,000 trips per annum. The office became computerised to cope with this growing demand for transport and the statistical data needed to support the grants they received.

By 2005 the DVG also became a limited company registered at Companies House.

In 2018 West Berkshire Council decided to ‘gift’ the Handybus to the DVG. Previously the DVG just supplied the drivers and organised the trips. Now they had full responsibility for its upkeep.

The Covid crisis set back the DVG operation for over a year. With surgeries not seeing patients and hospitals tackling the covid pandemic their services were not required. When they restarted, some draconian measures were introduced. Clients had their temperature taken before starting their journey, masks were mandatory and they had to travel in the back seat with a window open. The car then had to be sanitised after each trip! Once the surgeries and hospitals returned to normal the DVG service began returning to pre-Covid levels.

It was decided to replace the ageing Handybus with an all-electric vehicle. The timing of this decision was important as West Berkshire Council and other organisations wanted to encourage environmentally friendly public transport. Thanks to many generous contributions, the new HandEbus, as it became known, was launched in February 2024. It was the first all-electric community transport vehicle in West Berkshire and one of only a handful in the country at that time. It has proved to be a great success both with residents and many environmentally conscious organisations in the area.

To help maximise the use of this new vehicle the DVG amended their Constitution. The focus is still on the ‘elderly and those in need’ for the car service, but they wanted the new HandEbus to benefit the whole Downland community, the young and the not so young.

In the last 40 years the Downland Volunteer Group has come a long way. So much has changed during that time and yet certain things do not change. They are always looking for new volunteers; they still need to publicise the service to new residents in the area and there are still car parking issues at some hospitals. Nevertheless, the continued demand for this service, the gratitude shown by clients and the satisfaction the volunteers derive from knowing their efforts make such a positive contribution, proves that what began in January 1986 has been very beneficial to the Downland Community.

Companies House No. 05572984 Charity Commission No 1112181