Otley people are being urged to dig deep into their pockets and support an appeal to buy a community minibus.

The town's umbrella group for older people, Otley Action for Older People (OAOP), wants to buy a new bus to replace the one that can no longer be used.

It will be used for shopping trips, day tours and other outings.

And at the group's annual general meeting last week, an appeal to raise around £30,000 to buy a new bus was launched by OAOP chairman and new Mayor of Otley Councillor John Eveleigh.

Coun Eveleigh, who has chosen to support OAOP as one of his charities during his year in office, said a new bus would increase social opportunties for older people in the community.

"It is customary for the town mayor to choose a charity to support for the year and I have opted for two that are close to my heart. We are desperate for a new minibus and monies raised during the year I intend to put to that cause," said Coun Eveleigh.

Neil McLellan, OAOP project manager, said they had already had substantial donations from well-wishers including money from one person who had held a sponsored horse ride.

He added they would be organising fundraising events such as raffles and sales and would be holding a special meeting to discuss ways of raising the money.

And he said he would be delighted to hear from anyone in the town who would like to hold any events to support the appeal.

"We need a replacement minibus for the other one which unfortunately we have stopped using.

"We have decided to put our resources into a new bus and are hoping to organise lots of fundraising," said Mr McLellan.

He added that the group was very pleased that the mayor had chosen to support the appeal during his year in office.

"That is a tremendous boost, we have already had a couple of people who have donated to the fund, it is beginning to make an impact and if anyone wants to come up with any ideas we would be very pleased," he said.

l The mayor's other charity for his year in office is the Otley Disabled People's Advisory Group.

Coun Eveleigh said: "We need to get over to everyone that disabled people have the same rights as everyone else and this new organisation is addressing the day-to-day problems being encountered by disabled Otley residents."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.