SENIOR councillors are being recommended to support a scheme to help villagers keep medical appointments.
Durham County Council has won £843,000 from the Department of Transport's Rural Bus Challenge fund.
It plans to spend £178,000 of that money on GP-access bus services in Derwentside and Weardale.
The Weardale scheme will see the council sign an agreement with the North-East Ambulance Service to operate a minibus service responding on demand.
Chris Tunstall, environment sand technical services director, says in a report to the council cabinet: "This service will be dedicated to providing a transport link to those, including the elderly and disabled, unable to access existing public transport services, to travel to appointments at GPs and clinics in Stanhope."
In Derwentside, a disabled-accessible minibus will be bought by Durham County Care, a wing of the county's social services, to provide a similar service from outlying villages to the GP surgeries at Lanchester.
The county council expects to recoup some of the costs from bus fares during the three-year life of the project.
The minibuses used in the schemes will also be used by local SureStart schemes when they are not carrying patients.
The council's cabinet will be recommended on Thursday to press ahead with the schemes.
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