Connect2
Making it easy for millions of people to walk and cycle to the local places they want to go
Connect2 is the BIG Lottery funded walking and cycling project that is transforming local communities across the UK. People in Connect2 communities will be able to take pride in places that are benefiting from better walking and cycling links as the project rolls out over the next five years.
Behind the scenes at Sustrans, the Connect2 team have been working closely with the Big Lottery Fund and local partners to get the UK-wide project underway. Over the next 5 years (to 2013) £50 million of Big Lottery Funding will be matched with more than £100 million of other funding to create dedicated, high quality local walking and cycling networks benefiting an estimated 6 million people across the UK from Devon to Perthshire.
Sustrans is now working with our many partners to ensure that the 79 schemes are the best they can be, and that the community is being involved as much as possible so Sustrans' Connect2 really creates the right environment to enable people to walk and cycle to school, the shops, to visit friends, for leisure and pleasure.
Local activity has already begun in Newtownabbey and Wicken Fen, and the very first Sustrans' Connect2 scheme opened in Scotland this July (2008) to a skirl of bagpipes and the sound of marching feet. The people of Dumfries are now be able to bypass the bypass by path, as a picture-perfect, disused railway viaduct spanning the River Nith is transformed into a walking and cycling route.
Sustrans' Connect2 is funded by a £50 million Big Lottery Fund grant after the UK public voted the scheme the winner of the People's Millions Lottery contest on ITV1 in December 2007.
Keep up-to-date with the progress of Connect2 at www.sustransconnect2.org.uk
