£38m extra for active travel schemes

A further £38m in Welsh Government grants has been made available for local authorities across Wales for active travel and road safety schemes.

This additional funding is on top of the £15.4m already allocated for helping councils reallocate road space and create safe conditions for walking, cycling and public transport users in response to Covid 19.

Some of this latest amount of available funding will go towards previously identified projects throughout Powys, including active travel projects in Newtown and Llandrindod Wells, a safer school route in Llanelwedd, the reopening of the redundant archway in Machynlleth and a road safety project in Libanus.

It is hoped that the remaining monies can find its way to the Welshpool area for smaller active travel schemes and road safety training. 

Cllr Heulwen Hulme, cabinet member of highways, said: “We have seen a big increase in the number of people who, since lockdown, are now choosing to make their local everyday journeys on bike or by foot. Not only is this great news for our health and wellbeing, it is also proving really beneficial to our local environment.

“With our share of this new Welsh Government funding, we aim to work alongside communities to introduce new and make improvements to existing active travel routes and road safety initiatives across the county, to give people the confidence to continue walking and cycling.”