Basingstoke ObserverSHOPMOBILITY Basingstoke, a group of volunteers based in Basingstoke has been awarded the The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. This is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK.
Shopmobility Basingstoke is one of 244 local charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive this prestigious award this year across the UK.
Tom Gilvear Chair, Board of Trustees explained the origins of the charity: “Shopmobility Basingstoke was conceived on 8th April,1991 in the last few days of Chris Evans’ year as Mayor of Basingstoke. Although, at that time, there were only around nine Shopmobility schemes operating in the country, everyone at the meeting in the Mayor’s Parlour thought it a good idea to try to open one in Basingstoke. Back then, as now, shopping facilities were good if you could contemplate being on your feet for some time but, if you cannot, it is impossible to think about a shopping trip.
With the support of the Council’s officers, etc. it still took six and a half years before we finally opened on 8th December 1997. We were determined that users could easily access our services and rejected ideas such as an office in a multi-storey car park. Finally, with financial input of the Council, Hermes and Grosvenor Estates we had our first customer to our purpose designed building, probably the only example in the country. One of the Volunteers on that day is still with us today, almost 25 years later!
When we opened we had 8 manual wheelchairs, 3 powered chairs and 8 electric scooters; a total of 19 vehicles. Today we have 34 Motorised Scooters, 8 Travel Scooters, 4 powered Wheelchairs, 22 Manual Wheelchairs, and 5 Walkers. A total of 73 units.
In our first year we had 3,200 using our services. Since then we have had around 200,000. customers setting off to the shops to, hopefully spend some money. It is often forgotten how much financial benefit Shopmobility’s brings to the retailers. The National body once estimated that at each visit around £50 would be spent. This would mean that, since we opened, around £10m will have been spent in the town; without Shopmobility much of that would not have been spent, or spent elsewhere.”
Chris was Chairman from inception until 2010 and remains involved as President. Tom Gilvear has been in the ‘Chair since 2010 taking Shopmobility Basingstoke to new heights – culminating in this award.
