Health chiefs have saved Keighley Community Transport by making up a Bradford Council funding shortfall.

Airedale Primary Care Trust, which runs GP and community health services, is giving £10,000 to the much-used charity.

The news came this week as Bradford Council presented a minibus to KCT to replace a vehicle destroyed by vandals two months ago.

KCT is paying £4,000 for the second-hand, 12-seater minibus, which was formerly used by Bradford Social Services.

Council chiefs negotiated a £1,000 discount with the leasing company which owned the low-mileage vehicle.

KCT bosses have also been offered money by a local charity to buy a new minibus costing around £20,000.

The two vehicles will bring the service's fleet back up to full-strength, so it can meet the demands of more than 200 local groups.

KCT logged 130,000 miles last year, with volunteer drivers carrying 35,000 passengers, including children, disabled people and the elderly.

Community Transport lost three vehicles last year in arson attacks at its premises next to Holycroft Primary School. Local groups and individuals have in recent weeks donated more than £1,500 to help replace the vehicles.

Keighley Community Transport was last month devastated when Bradford Council revealed it would give just half its usual £16,000 annual grant.

KCT chairman Brian Hudson feared the charity would not be able to continue to pay the wages of its organiser Steven Shorten.

At the time, the council said it was working with other organisations to make up the £8,000 shortfall for the 2003-2004 financial year.

The discussions bore fruit this week when Councillor Kris Hopkins, Bradford's community services chief, revealed that the Primary Care Trust was willing to give cash.

Mr Hudson has welcomed the extra money, saying the service is now safe for the next 12 months.

He also paid tribute to Bradford councillors who helped secure the Social Services minibus. "They listened to us and actually did something," he said.

But Mr Hudson pointed out that KCT's sister service, Dial-a-Ride, which carries mostly disabled people, still faced closure.

Dial-a-Ride's grant from the Single Regeneration Budget runs out in March, and neither Bradford Council nor other organisations have agreed to pick up funding.