About Winchester Good Neighbours
What We Do
At first sight it looks as though we operate a cheap taxi service. In one way, that’s what we do but it’s much more than that.
Medical appointments for the vulnerable and elderly are stressful. Just the journey can be a challenge. Public transport is often infrequent and inconvenient and, especially if you have a programme of appointments, taxis get expensive. Then, there’s the whole health thing that almost always brings anxiety and often pain.
With this as background, we offer a friendly face. We try to pair volunteers with clients (as we call them) so that the journey to the appointment is not one of stony silence but gentle chatter, getting to know each other or catching up. For those who live alone it may be the first human contact that day.
Then we will wait up to an hour during the appointment so it is often the same face for the return trip. That is when the client usually unburdens not only about the appointment but how it affects them.
So, transport yes, but much more. Read the testimonials!
A Little History
Winchester Good Neighbours (WGN) started up in the early 2010s and became a registered charity in England and Wales (no 120794) in 2024. We are 100% volunteer run today - volunteer coordinators and volunteer drivers, volunteer web site developer.
Our Trustees
Our trustees are all local people who also volunteer their services:
A D Boul
J H Burland
Mrs H M Henshaw
J M Palmer-Felgate
P W Rumble
Mrs S A Boul
Mrs J L George
D R James
Ms D E Quinn
We are part of the Good Neighbours Network (this link opens in a new browser tab), that, through over 100 groups similar to ours, operates all over Hampshire.
Our primary activity, as a charity, is to transport people (mostly the vulnerable and old) in the Winchester area to and from medical appointments. In official language our charity “objects” are to:
To relieve persons resident in Winchester and the surrounding areas (“the area of benefit”) who are in need by reason of their age, disability, poor health, social isolation or poverty in particular but not exclusively by providing volunteer transport facilities and related support for health or wellbeing related appointments or local shopping assistance for those who have special need of that provision because they are elderly, disabled or by reason of poor health or living in isolated areas where there are no public transport facilities or no affordable private transport.
Recent Award
In spring 2026 our contribution to the Winchester area was recognised in us being given the Mayor’s Community Award. We were honoured to receive such recognition from the local community.
