| Businesses, charities, schools, and community groups are set to benefit from equal opportunities to use greener travel, and the chance to connect to essential services, with the launch of the Easy Travel Access Fund.
Organisations can apply for a grant of up to £5000 to help underserved and marginalised communities access bus travel. Portsmouth City Council is launching this fund to ensure that everyone in the city has the chance to get on board the bus and will provide successful applicants with funding to buy bus tickets, provide training to use the bus and more.
This is part of council plans to ensure that everyone has equal chances to use greener travel options. More and more people are using the bus in Portsmouth, and we want to extend that to everyone. If more people took the bus in the city, they would help to reduce air pollution and make the air we breathe cleaner, which has a positive effect on climate change as well as reducing traffic in the city.
Cllr Peter Candlish, Cabinet Member for Transport, expressed the council’s hopes for the scheme by saying, “I encourage businesses, community groups and charities to grab the opportunity for funding to help give everyone in Portsmouth access to bus travel. We know that the bus is a great connecter to essential services and opportunities and want everyone equally to have the chance to use it”.
The new Easy Travel Access Fund is part of Portsmouth City Council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan and one of the many projects designed to improve bus travel for everyone in the city.
If you want to know more about how your business can benefit from the Easy Travel Access Fund, explore our brochure found on our website: travel.portsmouth.gov.uk/schemes/easytravelaccessfund, to apply complete our online application form. If you have any questions about the fund or your application, you can call 02392 688000.
Important dates:
- Application deadline: midnight on 5 August 2024
- Notification of successful applicants on 19 August 2024
- Project completion and funding spend by 31 March 2025
Find out more about the Easy Travel Access Fund on our website: travel.portsmouth.gov.uk/schemes/easytravelaccessfund/
| More information about the Portsmouth Bus Service Improvement Plan
The Portsmouth Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) is Portsmouth’s visionary delivery scheme aligned with the government’s National Bus Strategy and aims to dramatically improve bus services in Portsmouth and to encourage passengers back to the bus. This programme is managed by an enhanced partnership between local bus companies Stagecoach South, First Solent and Portsmouth City Council. With a £48 million grant from the Department for Transport (DfT) the Portsmouth BSIP aims to increase bus usage in Portsmouth by engaging with the local community, and transforming the bus network in the city, so that it is faster, more reliable, and more affordable. The Portsmouth BSIP has already funded early morning travel, and later night services, tap on tap off technology, fare free weekends to encourage residents to try the bus, Christmas Day bus services and much more, with even more exciting developments planned for 2024/2025. More information can be found on our website: https://travel.portsmouth.gov.uk/public-transport/ |
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