Funding Your Active Travel Schemes

You may have great ideas for enabling more people to walk or cycle and be less car dependent…  but how can you find the funding you need for your active travel schemes?  Whether you are approaching this as a local authority, school, business, community organisation or even an individual trying to improve things in your own neighbourhood, there are a range of funding sources to consider.

The sources I’m going to mention mainly apply to projects across England and sometimes the rest of the UK. But I’m also linking you to some information that applies to our local area - North Northamptonshire. This includes free webinars which form part of our local Funding Fair (which we have helped organise). Although it has a local context a lot of the information is relevant further afield.

Much as we’d love to have loads of funding for new cycle paths and safe crossings everywhere, that’s too much to address in this blog. So we’ll ‘park’ that for now and look at funding opportunities for ‘soft’ active travel measures.

Funding for Soft Measures
These are the projects which involve behaviour change initiatives, promotion, events or training. Whilst the results may not be as obviously permanent as new cycle lanes and other capital investment, these measures are extremely important too. They go hand in hand together to ensure overall success.

What’s more, anyone can organise a ‘soft measure’ active travel initiative. They don’t need to be high cost but often they do need at least some resources which need to be funded.  And so we will look at some of the different options for these softer measures.

Support from Supermarkets 
Many supermarkets have community schemes. For example cooperatives have it strongly embedded in their culture to give back to their local communities. Your local cooperative can provide information about their current community grant scheme and how to apply.  Click here for free online webinar.

Other stores such as Tesco have schemes funded by the sale of plastic bags. They offer schools as well as other community groups the chance to apply to be a candidate to receive a grant which depends on shoppers’ votes. In some areas these schemes are undersubscribed and as the recipients change every month it’s worth applying. Click here for free webinar about applying for Tesco Stronger Start funding (in North Northants).
 

Community Foundations
These are independent charities which are set up to help distribute grants from businesses, philanthropists and other sources within a specific geographical area. Most applicants for their funds need to be set up as a formal group with at least a committee and agreed constitution (they can signpost you to local support to do this), but they do sometimes fund individuals too. They are an excellent source of advice and tips for effective funding bids too. Click here for free webinars on funding sources and funding applications with Northants Community Foundation (some of this applies elsewhere).

Local Councillors and Your Council
Your local councillors will usually have a fund which they can choose how to spend in their ward. It may be a few hundred pounds or more depending on the type of council eg town councillors will have smaller funds than unitary or county councillors. In the months before an election there could be several councillors with unspent budget keen to make good use of it rather than hand the money back. You can find out who your local councillor is and how to contact them by putting in your postcode to  https://www.gov.uk/find-your-local-councillors

As well as individual councillors having budgets, your local council will usually have a range of funds available for community projects.

Click the links below for a  free webinar on funding from local councils (North Northants but some info relevant elsewhere).

Town Councils - A Grant from your Local Council - Aspire North Northants

North Northamptonshire Council – Community Grants - Aspire North Northants

Wishing You Success

I hope these examples help you to secure the funding for the active travel resources you need. If your role means you cannot actually apply yourself but you can direct others to these ideas then please do.

Of course once you have your funding if you are looking for ideas of how to spend it to make your active travel campaigns a big success, remember to take a look at our range of products to boost engagement!

Here at Brightwayz social enterprise we love to provide information and tips to help you, your colleagues, friends and family travel in safe, active, sustainable ways for everyday journeys.

Our unique range of products is here to help support your active travel campaigns and 100% of profits from sales is ploughed back to support the work we do. Take a look at our range here and find something to help you inspire others to travel in good ways.