Buckinghamshire is putting a bid in for new £200 million fund to improve walking and cycling routes
The Active Travel England fund also hopes to boost local economies.
Buckinghamshire Council has announced they will put a bid in for the new £200 million Government fund.
The new pot aims to help local authorities make improvements that enable more people to choose active travel.
Steven Broadbent, the Buckinghamshire Cabinet Member for Transport, says the fund will help the council achieve their active travel ambitions.
He said: “We need the external funding to be able to deliver on our ambitions for an expanded active travel network across the county.
“We use developer funding where we can, but obviously central government funds will help, and therefore we will bid in.”
Steven added that the council will be looking at the criteria and try to get as much of the fund as possible.
He said: “Our main goal if we got a part of the fund would be to deliver the schemes that are part of our country-length Greenway Ambition.
“We want to build key routes where people can move around both for leisure and just to get places in their daily lives more easily.”
Steven says these schemes would be great for the people in the community.
He said: “Implementing these schemes would mean that people cycling, walking or wheeling could go into further away spaces from where they live.
“Active Travel England wants to make these sustainable travel methods attractive alternatives to taking a car journey, and if we do that, it reduces congestion on the road, improves air quality and, of course, makes people healthier.”
The Government says that the pot can be used for schemes which, for instance:
• create more paths in rural areas;
• develop safer routes for children to walk to school;
• improve safety at junctions for people walking and cycling
Funding can also be used to support people in wheelchairs and mobility scooters by making street designs more inclusive.
Projects will be designed in consultation with residents and businesses to ensure schemes are safe and work for local communities.
Buckinghamshire is hoping to find out if they are successful by the end of March.