In August 2001 there was a meeting in Netherton inviting local tenders for school taxis. Local people put bids in for school taxi contracts but only one contract was won, even though new vehicles were planned.

At that meeting Marc Johnson, North Northumberland Rural Transport Officer, located in Belford, approached local people to see if there was interest in setting up a community transport programme. Mike Carr, John Lazarus and Becky Torrance formed a small community transport group with Marc Johnson.

In late 2001, after a number of meetings, they carried out a survey of 500 households in the valley concerning current transport uses and needs. They formed the group Transport for Upper Coquetdale, the name later being changed to Upper Coquetdale Community Transport (UCCT). Originally a Flexicar scheme was envisaged.

Charitable status seemed desirable for funding purposes and the Upper Coquet Resource Group charity at Alwinton was approached in September 2002 as a potential umbrella charitable group. The approach was unfortunately unsuccessful.

It was agreed to seek independent charitable status. UCCT advertised and formed a group of 12 and gained charitable status in April 2004. They applied for funding and bought a minibus with money mostly from the Countryside Agency, with some from Rothbury Gold, Alnwick District Council and Northumberland County Council. The minibus was purchased with a capacity for 17 (including the driver) with the money being held for the group by Rothbury Parish Council. It had a disabled person's lift, which unfortunately is now out of commission and awaiting funding.

Rothbury Parish Council had already been involved in gaining funding for a taxi bus scheme with funding of £6000. Andrew Mackey of Rothbury Motors had run this on a commercial basis on a Monday and a Friday.

UCCT later gained funding to extend the scheme from October 2005 for a further year. The UCCT minibus now runs this ‘Rothbury Shoppers’ scheme on Fridays, collecting people from their homes in Rothbury and the surrounding area and bringing them into the village for shopping and services. The minibus ran nearly 100 trips in 2007: local school trips to the Rothbury swimming-pool and elsewhere; Scout and Guide groups; sports groups; Age Concern and others all use the minibus for various purposes. Rothbury Scouts have representatives in the group and paid £500 to provide a large roof rack.

Transport in North Northumberland (TINN) acted as a transport brokerage. Community groups booked the minibus through TINN, who also provided insurance and volunteer drivers. UCCT also used its own volunteer drivers. MIDAS driver training – which costs £75 each – is desirable and UCCT and Rothbury Parish Council shared the cost to train four local drivers. The Northumberland County Council workshops are used for maintenance and safety inspections.

The criteria for hiring the UCCT minibus are the same as for using TINN services. Users of community transport have to fall into specified groups, such as suffering rural disadvantage, be elderly or infirm, without ready access to a car or be too young to drive, for example. Groups should be engaged in a useful activity. These are the criteria for using any community minibus.

In July 2007 TINN offered to take over the running of the minibus from UCCT. This offer was considered as the Chairman wanted to retire from the work. In February 2008 UCCT considered whether to accept TINN’s offer or to continue as an independent organization (still using TINN’s brokerage), and decided on the latter option. A new chair was appointed, and a funding group formed in April 2008. By June 2008 the funding group had raised £4000 in grant funding. The cost of maintenance and insurance is likely to rise.