Sustainable transport

Transport is the single biggest contributor of carbon emissions in Northumberland. We need to change the way we travel by taking shorter journeys, walking more, cycling, taking public transport and investing in electric vehicles.

Slow down, take stock and adopt more sustainable ways of travel by walking, cycling and using public transport more often.

The Big Northumberland Gear Change is a local campaign to encourage us all to slow down, take stock and adopt more sustainable ways of moving around the county by walking, cycling and using public transport more often.

Reducing our reliance on cars is crucial to achieving Northumberland's net zero target by 2030. With only 13% of all journeys in Northumberland made on foot or by bike and with a third of all trips made in the county less than 5km, there is plenty of potential for us all to ditch our cars some or all of the time in favour of healthier, greener and happier ways of getting around.

Find out more at northumberlandgearchange.co.uk

Find out everything you need to know about electric vehicle charging points in Northumberland here.

Find your nearest EV charging point

There are currently 37 Council-owned electric vehicle (EV) charging points across the county, which have a tariff of 35p per kwh. Find your nearest EV charging point here.

If you have access to off-street parking, you may be eligible for a Government grant for a home EV charger.

The Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) is a grant that provides a 75% contribution to the cost of one chargepoint and its installation. A grant cap is set at £350 (including VAT) per installation. The main requirement is that a person owns, leases, or has ordered a qualifying vehicle and has dedicated off-street parking at their property. A person may apply for 2 chargepoints at the same property if they have 2 qualifying vehicles.

Find out more here.

Have you been thinking about investing in an electric vehicle (EV) but have nowhere to charge it at home? We want to hear from residents who don’t have off-street parking to help select areas that would benefit from on-street EV charge points.

Suggest a location near your home and we will collate responses which will be reviewed collectively to help inform potential future delivery in areas where demand is greatest.

Complete the form here.

Unfortunately, requests cannot be responded to individually and there is no guarantee that an on-street EV charger will be installed as a result of completing this form.

If you are a business you may be eligible for a Government grant for workplace EV chargers.

The Workplace Charging Scheme is a voucher-based scheme designed to provide eligible applicants with support towards the upfront costs of the purchase and installation of EV chargepoints. The contribution is limited to the 75% of purchase and installation costs, up to a maximum of £350 for each socket, up to a maximum of 40 across all sites for each applicant.

Find out more here.

Off-street EV charging grant

Northumberland County Council promotes sustainable transport under the Go Smarter banner.

Go Smarter encourages people across Northumberland to explore and use sustainable modes of transport - walking, cycling, public transport and car sharing - when travelling to work and school; making journeys greener, cheaper and healthier.

Please click here for more information about Go Smarter Northumberland.

Have your say on the Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plan. We want to know what you think!

We want to support more people of all ages and circumstances to walk and cycle more often and make active travel the natural choice for short journeys. To achieve this, we will focus on our main towns, where we will strive to create walking and cycling networks that are joined-up, safe, attractive and accessible to all.

We are running a public consultation consultation that specifically relates to Goal 1 Sustainable Towns as outlined in 'Our Way'. To enhance the pedestrian and cycling environment in our towns, we have developed Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs) for our 12 main towns (Alnwick, Amble, Ashington, Bedlington, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Blyth, Cramlington, Haltwhistle, Hexham, Morpeth, Ponteland, Prudhoe).

We want to know what you think. This consultation will run from 7 March 2022 to 15 April 2022.

For more information and to have your say, please click here to respond to the consultation.