The struggle to help elderly and disabled users left in the lurch when the Kingston Enterprise scheme closed was being held up by data protection, according to a Kingston councillor.

Kingston Enterprise closed down when two-thirds of the funding for the scheme, run by Richmond and Kingston Accessible Transport (Rakat), was stopped.

A 247-strong petition failed to persuade Kingston Council to cover the full £50,000 and keep the service going, but Councillor Bob Steed, who is responsible for transport, is trying to find another solution.

Coun Steed said: "We offered to help existing users of Kingston Enterprise. We asked for the names.

"Rakat said it could not release names because of the data protection act."

Asked how long he had been seeking the names, he said, a "couple of months".

Alan Smart, operations director at Rakat, said the organisation may be able to provide a list if the users gave their permisssion.

He said: "We have to do things properly but it’s quite possible."

RAKAT chairman Hilary Garner later confirmed that a solution had been reached where it would write to users and ask them to come forward to the council.

Pensioner Mabel Bullick, who lives on the Cambridge Estate, and attended a meeting with Coun Steed last week, said: "They just won’t divulge anything. We want it back."

Are you one of the former users of Kingston Enterprise? Contact the Surrey Comet on 020 8330 9547 to pass on your details to Kingston Council.