The wonderfully named Dream Team at Pembrokeshire People First, a charity that supports those with a learning disability, joined CTA and Transport for Wales at an engagement event on Bus Reform in South West Wales. They had been thinking about the issues facing them and their friends when trying to use or access transport in what is quite a rural area. We held a space for a chat workshop where they could look at the reforms proposed and discuss the barriers they faced.

The new Bus Services (Wales) Bill (Bill linked here) that is currently being scrutinised represents the most significant change to bus legislation in Wales for more than a generation, so it’s been vital for us at CTA to work closely with officials to represent you, our members, and the communities you support, as the legislation was drafted and began the scrutiny process.

The team began planning the conference five months before the actual event, so seeing it come to fruition a couple of weeks ago was wonderful. It was a gloriously sunny day in Llandudno, and our conference facilities overlooked the promenade and the sea. Who wouldn’t want to have been there! The conference had been a sell-out, and we had a waiting list for people to attend. A total of 55 organisations were represented on the day, including members, stakeholders, and partners, as well as those just at the very beginning of developing their own community transport in Wales.

It is not often that you go to a break out session at a conference and hear about elephants and a nun riding an E bike, but at the CTA Wales Conference breakout session Extending transport Provision through E-Bikes, we heard all about one of the nuns from Skanda Vale Hospice in Wales using an E bike to get around the hospice site and we saw the elephants that live alongside her and her community at the hospice. It was a fantastic illustration of how extending the way we think about CT can have an impact on people and communities that more traditional CT options have not reached.