A NEW disabled taxi service is waiting to pick up where Darlington Dial a Ride failed.

Darlington Council has confirmed it is in the final stages of negotiations with a local charitable organisation to operate a full taxi service for disabled people.

Loose ends are expected to be tied up by next week and the service is likely to be operating by the end of March.

The news follows a statement issued on Monday by Dial a Ride chairman, Coun Rod Burtt, to the effect that the service would cease from 5pm that day and that the decision had been unavoidable.

Coun Burtt, who had been the chairman for only two months, made the decision after calling in Darlington Council auditors to examine the company's accounts following months of financial difficulties.

A reduction in donations from £13,000 in 2000 to just £4,000 last year coupled with spiralling fuel and insurance costs had been blamed for the situation.

Auditors have now informed the police, and recommendations are that Dial a Ride's finances be investigated by the Charities Commission.

Gordon Pybus, chairman of Darlington Association on Disability, told the D&S Times that Dial a Ride had never lived up to its expectations.

He said: "Only people who could book well in advance could use the Dial a Ride service. It was never a proper taxi service you could ring up and hope to get straight away. It worked mostly with contracts and advance bookings.

"The good news is that there is a local charitable organisation almost ready to start operating a proper taxi service for disabled people in Darlington.

"A similar service to the one proposed operates in Stockton and Hartlepool. It uses two vehicles and get through ten times as much work as Dial a Ride did with five vehicles.

"It has paid drivers and paid administrators, and it is run as a business. This way the service is not at the mercy of volunteer drivers' other work or personal commitments.

"Volunteers are valuable as a back-up but should not be the mainstay of any operation like this. Dial a Ride knew it was in trouble and could have been winding things down gradually instead of closing overnight.

"This way another operator could have been ready to pick up straight away and users would not have been affected.

"Dial a Ride management said it was lack of funds which forced its closure. Yet when asked what it would do with more funding, the answer was to lease another vehicle.

"That was never the answer. What it needed was a properly-run organisation with paid staff.