Three Greater Manchester travel schemes awarded funding by Active Travel England

Three Greater Manchester travel schemes have been backed by funding from Active Travel England’s £1m Innovation Fund.

Walk Ride Greater Manchester received £98,923 to set up, coordinate and scale walking and bike buses across Manchester and Trafford, helping primary school children make safe, active journeys to school. The funding pays for a dedicated coordinator to grow the network at scale.

Simply Cycling was awarded £80,800 for “Ride Well, Work Well”, a project partnering job clubs, councils, community and health services to use cycling as an option for transport, health and employment barriers, particularly for people facing combined disadvantages. The funding will allow free cycle confidence sessions to be available and tailored to individual and community needs.

Mosa Innovations and Manchester Bikes also won £78,000 to deliver a community-led cycle-sharing link between Walkden railway station and RHS Bridgewater, one of Europe’s largest gardens. The pilot lets visitors ride from the train to the garden, and back, closing the last-mile gap that currently leaves most arriving by car.

Speaking about the funding award, Tom Donald, Project Coordinator at Simply Cycling, said: “Simply Cycling has been working in the Manchester area for over 20 years, breaking down barriers for people to access cycling. This grant allows us to work in Trafford areas where cycling levels are low. We will be working with people with long-term health conditions or disabilities and those seeking employment to identify and reduce barriers to cycling.

“This will include; teaching people to ride, basic cycle mechanics, rides around parks, planning routes for, and cycling on roads. This grant allows us to provide all this free of charge for the people of Trafford.”

Josh Liu, Founder of Mosa Innovations, added: “Greater Manchester keeps proving that the best active travel ideas grow from the ground up, not from the top down. Our Bridgewater pilot puts the technology in the hands of a local operator and a local venue. That is what makes it durable, and it is why three of these national winners are running on Greater Manchester soil.”