Sadly overnight on 2 October, two of our wheelchair accessible minibuses were broken into at Oakham Enterprise Park. One of them was stolen and destroyed in a local farmer’s field, with the engine ripped out for parts. we attach a couple of pictures (both of the stolen vehicle).

Not only is this extremely upsetting for us, but as a small charity with limited resources, it will be expensive to replace even after the insurance payment. More frustrating, is the fact that these vehicles are used by schools, community groups, and some of our community’s most vulnerable residents for socialising and having access to amenities. With two (of our three) minibuses currently off the road, there will be a genuine interruption to these services, and I think VAR is one of the only (possibly the only) organisation with wheelchair accessible minibuses in the county. An additional knock-on is of course the loss of revenue to the charity because of these mindless actions.

Any help and assistance you could give, both around raising the profile of this incident and with our upcoming fundraising for a replacement will be gratefully received.