Sustrans Win!!

[fcurran]

Great News! See below from The Sustrans Website:



£50 million won and we couldn’t have done it without you!

This is fantastic news, and thanks to everyone who voted for Sustrans’ Connect2 in the People’s £50 Million Lottery Giveaway, and for your help in winning £50 million of funding from the Big Lottery Fund for Sustrans to invest in walking and cycling UK-wide. This really is an amazing achievement for our charity and the many local authority and other partners with whom we will work on Connect2. We simply couldn’t have done it without you and your votes.

We start work on delivering Connect2 in January 2008. Our local authority partners are poised ready to go, and will be adding matched funding from their own transport and other budgets to the £50 million from the Big Lottery Fund. This is a five year project, and in total we have already identified nearly £100 million of local authority funding to support Connect2, and we are working hard to bring even more funding to the project so that we can ensure as many people as possible benefit from Connect2.

We will continue to update you on progress during 2008. In the meantime can I take this opportunity to wish you a very happy Christmas and New Year and to thank you again for supporting Sustrans’ Connect2.

John Grimshaw MBE
Founder and Chief Executive Sustrans

 

[musicbooks]

Fabulous News..

 

[flecc]

That's great!
.

 

[carpetbagger]

yes,i agree,great news...lets hope they haven't done a deal with crown or dulux !!

 

[Ian]

Great news.

Well done Frank for spotting it.

 

[Tim]

That is brilliant news, a worthy winner.

 

[Steven Brandist]

This is excellent news, especially as I bothered to vote!

This is quite exciting for me as there is a proposed Connect2 project not more than 1 mile from my house that will provide all weather, all ability access to Watermead County Park, which in turn provides a traffic free route to the city centre of Leicester.

Congratulations Sustrans. Let the diggers roll!

 

[Ian]

Me too Steven, living at the other side of the park. Although it has to be said that it's not at all bad at present, at least for the able bodied. Some of the brdges earmarked for improvement are a pain, especially for the disabled, hopefully the muddy bit at your end will finaly get a proper surface, and it will be nice to cycle further north staying off the roads.

 

[coops]

Great news I notice there's a few projects not far from me too - quite major looking ones like the Bridgewater canal towpath development & Goyt valley link, both aiming to improve cycling access in & out of the city, the former in particular a 'green corridor'.

Come on diggers, do your stuff! I hope everyone gets some much-needed improvements near them.

Stuart.

 

[fcurran]

42% of total votes cast!

Another quote, this time from: quickrelease.tv » Blog Archive » Cycling wins £50m and nearly half of vote




The Sustrans’ Connect2 scheme garnered 42 percent of the 286,285 votes entered by members of the public for the winner-takes-all Big Lottery Fund beauty contest.

This was the biggest-ever UK Lottery grant awarded by public vote.

Funding will be transferred to Sustrans for the scheme over the course of five years, starting in 2008. The Connect2 project will cost a total £140 million, of which £50 million will be Lottery money, with the rest being match-funded from other sources.

Announcing the winner, Sir Clive Booth, chair of the Big Lottery Fund which distributes Lottery grant money, said the Sustrans project had won nearly half of all the votes cast.

“It really won hands-down. What did it was that public support was terrific. Given there were four projects, getting half the vote was a big achievement. I think it has captured people’s imaginations because it is going to affect their lives right across the UK.”

 

[fishingpaul]

this reminds me of rowheath park pool,this is in bournville in birmingham,which won big lottery money,the plan was for disabled fishing pegs,nice job has been done,water aeration systems,good systems installed,dredging of pool to remove years of built up silt,this never happened,and finally restocking of fish,my blood still boils,what they did was take out the largest carp over 10 pounds+(fish that had lived there for 30 years),and swapped them for small juvenille roach.i am not accusing anyone, but i do not think all of the money recieved has been spent.i hope the sustrans money is better spent,and follows the voted for plan.

 

[Ian]

I wouldn't worry Paul, Sustrans has an enviable reputation for doing what it says it will, one only needs to look at how quickly the National Cycle Network has grown to see that.

The lottery money will be released over a 5 year period though, and while work will start next month many will have to wait longer to see results.

 

[Tim]

Have Sustrans published a before and after map of the changes to the national cycle network this win will bring about? I'd be interested in seeing that, but there isn't one on their website as far as I can see.

 

[Ian]

Details of the connect 2 schemes by region are here Tim. I think the aim of the overall project is to give more people the ability to use (or connect to) the existing facilities rather than a large increase in route miles which is an ongoing Sustrans activity anyway.