Vouchers to get young home safe

YOUNG people in the Kiama municipality can now get home safely, even if they have run out of money, by pre-purchasing a taxi voucher from the Youth Centre.

The Safe Travel voucher is an initiative of Kiama Youth Centre, Kiama Cabs, the NSW Ministry of Transport and Kiama Council.

"The project aims to encourage young people to take more responsibility when planning a night out with friends and to discourage them from remaining and congregating on the main streets late at night," said senior youth worker Andrew Chatfield.

Under the scheme, people aged between 12 and 17 can buy a voucher from the Youth Centre to travel from the Kiama and Gerringong CBDs to anywhere within the municipality.

The vouchers are sold at a discounted rate to a regular taxi fare.

For example, a trip from Kiama CBD to Minnamurra would usually cost about $25. A Safe Travel voucher for this trip costs only $10 and the young person with it just needs to give the voucher to the Kiama Cabs driver and not pay any extra unless the journey exceeds that distance.

The vouchers are valid only until midnight on the day of purchase and identification needs to be shown to buy one.

They are limited to one person a day.

Mr Chatfield said a similar scheme was successfully being run in the Eurobodalla shire. He said that council had given the organisers in Kiama a lot of information and assistance in setting up the scheme here.

Kiama Council had also received "great support" from Kiama Cabs in the planning.

"This is an ongoing scheme with the first year a pilot run to see how it goes and get feedback from young people and the taxi drivers," he said.

"We"ve got funding from the Ministry of Transport for this year and hopefully the funds raised will make it sustainable after that."

The official launch of the vouchers will be held next week.