A COMMUNITY bus scheme that helps elderly and disabled people get to the shops and hospital appointments, and takes them out for day trips, is celebrating ten years.

The Tisbus service came into existence in August 2000 when the late Lord Clanwilliam and a group of residents set up a charity and purchased a second hand minibus to provide a social bus service for the residents of the Nadder Valley.

It now has a fleet of four buses, 255 members and covers all residents of the Nadder Valley villages and hamlets. As well as its initial aims, it now provides two weekly trips to Salisbury, one a week to Shaftesbury and Gillingham and once a month to Warminster.

Members and guests celebrated the Tisbus’s tenth anniversary last Wednesday at Emblems restaurant in Fovant. Lord Margadale, whose mother Lady Margadale uses the service, was the guest of honour and said Tisbus provides a worthwhile and beneficial service.

Raymond Tuffin, a regular user of Tisbus, said to him and many others it is a lifeline allowing them to lead active and productive lives in the community.

Lord Margadale and Tricia Carroll cut the anniversary cake with a sword provided by chairman of the trustees David Medd. He then unveiled a tenth anniversary logo on one of the buses with Vivian Neighbours, the Tisbus co-ordinator.