A Nissan dealership in County Tyrone has supplied a Townstar electric van to a local caring services organisation – who say it’s perfect for their needs.
The environmentally-friendly compact LCV, obtained via Pat Kirk Nissan in Omagh, is being used by the team at Strabane and District Caring Services (SDCS) for delivering meals on wheels to vulnerable members of the local community.
It has been purchased thanks to a generous grant from the National Lottery Community Fund. Chris McDaid, Community Development Officer at SDCS, is sure the award-winning Townstar will be perfect for the job.
He explained: ‘‘A little while ago now, we made an application for lottery funding to provide a meals-on-wheels service to Strabane and the surrounding area.
‘‘We spoke to Pat Kirk Nissan about the possibility of buying a hybrid model to begin with, conscious of the environmental impact of the programme. Then the National Lottery Community Fund came back to us and encouraged us to consider using a full electric vehicle.
‘‘Thankfully we were then able to revise our application to cover both the cost of the vehicle and the installation of the necessary charging infrastructure on site, which was great news for us.’’
He added: ‘‘We love our new Townstar. It’s perfect for our needs and its range is more than adequate.’’
Chris explained that the vehicle will be on the road between 11am and 2pm every day, taking meals to the most vulnerable members of society such as elderly and disabled people.
He added: ‘‘We have a five-year contract with the National Lottery Community Fund to provide the meals on wheels service – we have been allocated £246,000 to take us to 2029. That enabled the purchase of the vehicle and the addition of two new staff members.’’
Asked what he thought of Townstar, Chris added: ‘‘I actually went to pick it up from Pat Kirk Nissan – it was my first experience of driving a fully electric vehicle and I can’t sing its praises highly enough.
‘‘As well as meeting our needs operationally, there are huge advantages in terms of running costs. And the team at the dealership – and James McDermott in particular – couldn’t have been more helpful.’’
Fantastic organisation
James, Sales Manager at Pat Kirk Nissan Omagh, said: ‘‘It was a pleasure dealing with Chris and his colleagues as they learned all about Townstar EV and discovered that it would meet their requirements.
‘‘Strabane and District Caring Services is a fantastic organisation doing enormously valuable work across our communities. We are pleased and proud to have helped to get its new meals-on-wheels service up and running.’’
Established in 1994, SDCS is a not-for-profit organisation providing domiciliary health care and other services to the community.