Member Article

North Tyneside to get moving with Lottery help

North Tyneside is set to get moving with a huge grant from the Big Lottery Fund to a newly formed partnership between Cobalt Business Park, North Tyneside Council and Sustrans. The £350,000 grant, which has come from the Big Lottery’s Well-Being Fund, aims to improve physical and mental well-being and promote healthy lifestyles in the district by encouraging local people to walk and cycle rather than drive.

The four-year project – “Get Moving North Tyneside” – will be recruiting a full-time coordinator to work with partners and the local community, who will deliver “Back to Bike” sessions, lead walks aimed at improving health and fitness, as well as promote the Waggonways cycle routes.

Lynn Cramman, Cobalt’s travel coordinator said: “At Cobalt we already have a whole range of initiatives and schemes in place to encourage people to use their cars less - including a car share scheme, led cycle rides and promotion of the 16 bus services serving Cobalt as well as a facility for the more than 7,500 staff at cobalt to have personalised travel plans devised for them.”

Stephen Psallidas, senior project officer at sustainable transport charity Sustrans, said: “Get Moving North Tyneside is a very exciting project, which will benefit a large number of people in the district - both workers at Cobalt and residents from regeneration areas in North Tyneside. We are very much looking forward to working with North Tyneside Council and Cobalt to help local people travel in ways that do not harm the environment and that also benefit their health and wellbeing. It is about changing people’s mindsets, as well as providing support and practical solutions.”

Cobalt has boosted the Get Moving North Tyneside fund by its own contribution of £20,000, as well as £10,000 of in-kind contributions.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .