South Yorkshire lands £4.8m for transport to support businesses
South Yorkshire has been awarded £4.8 million in Government funding to
support sustainable transport schemes to help businesses and workers in
the county. The Department for Transport (DfT) has awarded to South
Yorkshire Partners £4.8 million of funding from its Local Sustainable
Transport Fund (LSTF) in a move that will help help people get to jobs,
help businesses become more efficient and austainable whilst helping the
environment.
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The money will support a range of schemes which bring environmental,
health and economic benefits to communities across England. Bidders had
to show that the money would be used to help boost economic growth,
reduce carbon emissions, improve air quality and encourage higher levels
of cycling and walking.
Amongst those schemes that will benefit people getting to work are
Wheels 2 Work, which provides scooters on a short-term loan basis to
people needing to take up work or training, but who haven’t got the
transport to get them there.
Or there is JobConnector, a new hourly
express bus service between Barnsley and Doncaster which will connect
communities and jobs in these two towns and in the southern Dearne
Valley.
Other schemes include Travel Choices support, where help is offered
direct to employers and employees to show them their travel choices
without depending on a car. This includes giving 3,600 existing car
drivers a public transport trial. And there is Independent Travel
Training which will deliver travel ‘buddying’ services to 80 young
people with special educational needs and disabilities.
There are also schemes to help promote training and to help businesses
convert their fleet to clean electric vehicles and to reduce fuel
consumption, which in turn will help make our businesses more cost
efficient.
The South Yorkshire bid focussed on communities where lack of access to
work or training is still a significant issue. It showed that
sustainable connectivity through public transport, cycling, walking and
powered two wheelers, supported by a clearly positioned promotional and
educational programme, would build on an already strong track record of
promoting sustainable growth. reducing carbon and other harmful
emissions, whilst facilitating economic growth.
The schemes will be delivered under the umbrella of Inmotion! which
provides a clear message of the range of travel choices. Bill Mordue,
Chairman of Sheffield City Region Combined Authority Transport
Committee, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this funding,
which will help us to get people into work and training and to do so in a
sustainable way that helps the environment.
“Our bid, which we submitted together with all four South Yorkshire
councils and a range of other organisations, has secured the second
largest amount of funding of all the bids around the country, which we
feel is testament to the high quality of the schemes we have put
together.”
