Walking and Cycling Opportunities for BwD businesses – are you eligible for £5000 grant?

With Department for Transport’s capability funding, Blackburn with Darwen Council are encouraging and enabling local businesses within the borough to support more walking and cycling.

Reducing congestion and pollution will not only contribute to the boroughs climate change emergency target of carbon neutral by 2030, but also help us maintain a healthy weight by being more active day to day when we are making our local journeys on foot or by bike.

Grants of up to £5000 are available for those businesses who would like to either develop a Travel Plan or revise their existing Travel Plan and who would use the grant to improve walking and cycling accessibility or facilities for example, improved onsite cycle parking to enable staff  to get to and from work without using their car.

All kinds of local businesses are eligible for the project. If you’d like to find out more, initial consultations can be arranged with Mel Taylor.

In addition to the availability of business grants, Blackburn with Darwen Council can also provide support to encourage more cycling and walking amongst its employees by providing an array of activities at no cost.

Capability Fund – Business Initiatives

Electric and Conventional Bike Hire Opportunity to hire Electric Bikes for business use or employee personal use.	Up to 400 hires available
Big Bike Revival Events Opportunity for employees to bring their own bike to work for Service Checks and basic maintenance to get bikes back to ride ability standard	Open to businesses within Blackburn and Darwen
Try a bike session Opportunity for our service delivery partners to bring a selection of bikes to try	Open to businesses within Blackburn and Darwen

 

BwD’s Assistant Executive Member for Growth and Development, Cllr Zainab Rawat said:

This is a fantastic opportunity for local businesses to really help their staff make the switch to a greener commute and active travel lifestyle. Making changes to our everyday travel will not only help us reach our BwD climate goals to be carbon neutral by 2030 to tackle climate change.

Making those short, under 2 mile journeys we all take every week by bike or on foot will be one step greener. The Council is committed to supporting these important behaviour changes, and we are proud to be able to offer help with designing an active travel plan to suit your business – and crucially, support you further with funding, case studies and resources.