Council welcomes major cycling and walking funding

19 Jan 2023 ARCHIVED (over 3 months old) - view latest news

The council has scooped almost £15m funding towards new cycling and walking routes for Tynedale and Bedlington - to make it easier, safer and greener for people to get around the county. 

The local authority secured over £14.7m through the Government’s Levelling Up Fund (LUF) - a multi-billion pound scheme for eligible local authorities to invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life, including regenerating town centres, high streets and upgrading local transport. 

In Bedlington, the scheme will provide new and upgraded active travel infrastructure to improve the east to west link across the town, connecting key residential and employment areas with the planned Northumberland Line station.   

Additional benefits to this route include connections to schools across the town. 

In Tynedale there’ll be an active travel link between Hexham train station and Corbridge, improving both local connections within Hexham and facilitating active travel trips between Hexham and Corbridge.   

The proposed route would largely follow the A695 between the two town’s rail stations. 

Council Leader Cllr Glen Sanderson: "This is incredibly good news for the county and especially communities in Bedlington and Tynedale. 

“The benefits of using our cars less where we can and taking more sustainable transport are well known to us all and this is exactly the kind of investment which will make a real difference. 

“A considerable amount of work was carried out to develop a suite of Local Cycling and Walking Plans for the county and we're delighted these two schemes were successful in securing Levelling Up funding."