Nottingham City Council has been awarded £93,000 to carry out work to help address barriers to walking and cycling.
Nottingham was one of several places to express interest to the UK Department for Transport (DfT) to become a national pilot area for active travel social prescribing. The council’s application, developed in partnership with Nottingham City Integrated Care Partnership, has been selected to submit a more detailed application.
Through social prescribing, people are referred to free services and tailored support to help them walk and cycle more. The support will be targeted to people who would most benefit from improved physical and mental health.
During the next few months, council officers will work with partners at the Integrated Care Partnership, Clinical Commissioning Group, Primary Care Networks and community partners and stakeholders in the city to gain a better understanding of what support and services people need to make more active journeys, including looking at health data to determine the geographical areas and groups that would most benefit from the scheme.
Councillor Rosemary Healy, portfolio holder for transport, Nottingham City Council, said: “This project will support our wider work on Eating and Moving for Good Health, and help to inform how we continue to deliver walking and cycling services, and how we can make active travel more accessible to people with health and mobility needs.
“Obviously we hope we’ll be successful in getting through to the next round of the programme, but the work carried out over the next few months will be valuable either way and will complement our ongoing investment in walking and cycling infrastructure across the city.”
The feasibility stage will run until the end of April 2022, after which up to four local authorities in the UK will be selected to receive funding to deliver a three-year programme.
