North Ayrshire Council (NAC) is set to benefit from up to £400,000 active travel funding from the SNP Government through the Sustrans Spaces for People Programme.
As of 10 July, delivery partner Sustrans already awarded £100,000 to NAC and with another £300,000 worth in bids currently under consideration, this may amount to £400,000 if the bids NAC submitted are deemed eligible.
The £100,000 funding allocated so far, will allow NAC to carry out a number of temporary infrastructure projects carried out to help people practice safe physical distancing and use active travel methods such as walking, cycling and wheeling for essential travel and exercise during the coronavirus pandemic.
On Glasgow Street and Princes Street in Ardrossan and New Street in Dalry, footways will be widened to create more space for people to physically distance while walking and queueing outside shops. Works will also be carried out in Irvine.
The SNP Government has awarded a total of £29,603,681 to local authorities and statutory bodies through the Spaces for People programme.
It is are also considering repurposing a final amount of funding from the active travel budget for additional bids in the pipeline amounting to £8,647,487.
While the fund has now closed for applications, Transport and Infrastructure Secretary Michael Matheson MSP said:
“I urge local authorities to continue to discuss proposals for active travel infrastructure with Sustrans as other funding routes and programmes may be appropriate.
“I would also like to remind local authorities that the Cycling, Walking and Safer Routes grant distributed to every local authority through the Local Government Settlement, was increased by £15 million pounds this year, to £23.9 million pounds in total and that too should be used for active travel infrastructure.”
Kenneth Gibson MSP commented:
“This is great news particularly for people in Ardrossan and Dalry.
“I know NAC officers formulate their bids with great care, and look forward to hearing about further allocations for the other £300,000 of bids they submitted.”
ENDS
