Who are we?
Sustrans makes smarter travel choices possible, desirable and inevitable. We’re a leading UK charity enabling people to travel by foot, bike or public transport for more of the journeys we make every day.
What can we offer?
Sustrans is passionate about supporting individuals and communities to secure a good level of community connectivity and access to skills, services, employment and education. We have over 30 years' experience of developing and delivering practical, cost-effective initiatives that enable many more people to travel by foot, bike or public transport, throughout the whole of the UK. Furthermore, Sustrans can support the strengthening of community cohesion through our activities and we would be keen to discuss this further with potential partners.
Sustrans firmly believes that our local sustainable transport cross-cutting interventions, promoting walking and cycling (both in terms of infrastructure development and behavioural change), are designed to Promoting Employment and Supporting Labour Mobility (EU Thematic Object TO8) and Tackle Poverty and Promote Social Inclusion (TO9), as expressed through Northamptonshire EP's EU SIF people centred community aspirations, especially in terms of its Access to Employment and Return to Work Programmes which states that "Low-carbon local transport schemes tailored to individuals and linking people in disadvantaged areas to jobs using existing infrastructure and encouraging walking and cycling. This would include promotional activities to encourage higher use of public transport, personal travel plans, support for public transport provision which is better aligned to where people live and when they need it." There is also an opportunity for economic growth through the Destination River Nene initiative, which makes reference to overcoming barriers to employment within the rural area, such as transport.
Of course, it also offers much more from a non-economic regeneration focus, in terms of a sense of place including local vitality and health and well-being benefits as well as potentially meeting other SIF aspirations, such and TO4 - Low Carbon Economy.
Sustrans can demonstrate the need for such an intervention though the theme of “Transport Poverty, which we highlighted as an issue in 2013. In summary, nearly 1.5 million people are at high risk of suffering from Transport Poverty and that 50% of English local authorities in have at least one high risk area.
More information on Sustrans and our services is available at www.sustrans.org.uk/our-services/what-we-do.
Who do we wish to partner and project ideas?
We are keen to support any organisations or consortia which wish to address social inequality or support the development of green infrastructure.
Sustrans sees its offer, of providing better travel opportunities, as an integral part of a package of solutions rather than as acting as an thematic lead, potentially focusing on infrastructure development, eco/green/rural tourism, access to services and education as well as jobs and training, for example in the setting up of community based training and employment hubs etc, though this is not an exclusive list.
Contact details
For more details please contact our Regional Director for the East Midlands, Matt Easter, on matthew.easter@sustrans.org.uk or 0115 853 2949/07787 289292.
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