What is the fund?
The £4 million fund aims to make it easier and safer to walk, wheel and cycle across York and North Yorkshire. Active Travel has enormous benefits for physical and mental health, while also supporting our environment and the local economy.
Currently, the fund has contributed approximately £3.4 million to 39 projects across York and North Yorkshire.
Full information about the fund can be found by visiting the Mayor's Active Travel Fund page.
Natural Health Service - a protected landscapes active travel behaviour change programme
Applicant: North York Moors National Park Authority
Funding Awarded: £499,924.11
Description: An innovative behaviour-change programme within four Protected Landscapes enabling walking, wheeling and public transport use to create healthier, more active communities across the region.
Skipton Canal Towpath Improvements: Pinder Bridge to south of Skipton General Hospital
Applicant: North Yorkshire Council
Funding Awarded: £498,875.40
Description: The scheme will upgrade 600m of towpath between Pinder Bridge and south of the hospital near Keighley Road, improving accessibility and connectivity to key amenities.
North York Moors Inclusive Active Travel Programme
Applicant: North York Moors National Park Authority
Funding Awarded: £130,635.23
Description: Improving accessibility on the Cinder Track by removing barriers and introducing adaptive bikes, enabling more people of all abilities to enjoy inclusive, active travel.
Knavesmire Active Travel Route Upgrade
Applicant: City of York Council
Funding Awarded: £500,000
Description: Major overhaul of existing active travel route including path widening and strengthening and provision of lighting to improve safety and increase route attractiveness.
Healthier Journeys to School and Work in York
Applicant: City of York Council
Funding Awarded: £280,000
Description: A package of measures to help children, parents and employees choose active travel as their mode of choice for their regular journeys.
Bootham Stray Active Travel Improvements
Applicant: City of York Council
Funding Awarded: £340,000
Description: Major overhaul of existing Bootham Stray active travel route including path widening and strengthening and provision of lighting to improve safety and increase route attractiveness.
Threshfield Primary School Active Travel Crossing Improvement Scheme
Applicant: Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority
Funding Awarded: £146,545
Description: A safe and accessible road crossing over Station Road to enable children at Threshfield Primary School to safely walk to school and access key services.
Whitby School
Funding Awarded: £18,630
Description: Funding for secure bike and scooter enclosures across two sites. The project removes storage and theft barriers, supporting higher levels of cycling and scooting among pupils and staff.
Derwent Riverside Project (Castle Garden)
Funding Awarded: £5,171.72
Description: Secure bike parking to encourage cycling to local amenities and activities, reducing reliance on cars and supporting community wellbeing.
Great Ouseburn Primary School
Funding Awarded: £6,162.29
Description: Funding to build early cycling confidence through balance bikes, secure storage, staff training and community repair sessions. Targeting low existing cycling rates, the project enables safe skill development, supports family behaviour change and reduces short car journeys to school. Staff training ensures long‑term sustainability.
York Cycle Campaign
Funding Awarded: £7,758
Description: Funding to deliver ‘Pedal in the Park’, a monthly, parkrun‑style cycling programme at York Racecourse for people lacking confidence or access to cycling. It targets disabled people, older adults, women and other groups facing barriers. Using traffic‑free space, adapted bikes, volunteer buddies and skills coaching, participants build confidence and social connection.
Selby High School - Working with Selby Locality Board
Funding Awarded: £10,204
Description: A cycling maintenance and confidence programme targeted at vulnerable and SEND pupils. By combining skills development with practical repairs, the project improves attendance, independence and readiness for active travel.
York High School
Funding Awarded: £5,000
Description: Delivery of a targeted bike maintenance and active travel initiative for disadvantaged pupils attending The Link, the school’s internal provision for students at risk of poor attainment or exclusion. The project combines skills‑based learning, wellbeing support and community engagement to promote cycling as a positive, sustainable travel choice.
St George's VC Academy
Funding Awarded: £10,163.98
Description: Funding to deliver ‘Balance First,’ focusing on early cycling skill development for children aged 2–17 and their families. The project provides balance bike and cycle training, community holiday sessions, maintenance workshops and enhanced bike storage. It targets confidence‑building, road safety awareness and inclusive access, including for SEND pupils. Delivery builds staff capability to sustain provision long term and aims to increase daily cycling to school while reducing short car journeys.
Barwic Parade Community Primary School
Funding Awarded: £9,900
Description:This project seeks to increase equitable access to Bikeability by establishing the Barwic Hub as a community‑led active travel centre on the Abbotts Road estate, a high‑deprivation area where families face barriers of cost, transport, safety, and confidence. The Hub will provide free access to bikes, safe cycling spaces, and skills training, enabling children and families who have previously been unable to participate to access Bikeability and wider cycling opportunities.
St Robert's RC Primary School
Funding Awarded: £16,630
Description: Funding to expand cycling and scooting through secure storage, bike libraries and engagement events. The project targets families willing to change travel behaviour if barriers are removed.
Acomb Primary School - Pathfinder Multi Academy Trust
Funding Awarded: £12,000
Description: Funding for covered cycle storage and a bike library to support disadvantaged and SEND pupils. The project removes barriers of access, storage and confidence, enables inclusive Bikeability participation and creates a permanent asset managed through school estates and PE Premium budgets.
Roecliffe C of E Primary School
Funding Awarded: £13,800
Description: Funding to embed a whole‑school cycling culture through skills training, Bike Bus activity, secure storage and community repair events. The project targets confidence, access and independence, particularly for children without bikes at home. Staff training and durable equipment ensure long‑term sustainability and reduced school‑run car use.
Oatlands Infant School/Yorkshire Causeway Schools Trust
Funding Awarded: £51,969
Description: Funding to expand its Bike Library, Bike Bus and Park & Stride initiatives. Building on proven success, the project increases safe cycling opportunities for families and reduces local traffic congestion.
Inspire Youth Yorkshire (IYY)
Funding Awarded: £29,954
Description: Funding to deliver a youth‑led active travel programme in Knaresborough, focusing on KS2–4 pupils, particularly girls. Activities include cycling confidence sessions, bike safety and maintenance workshops, youth ambassadors and a community ride celebrating local cycling heritage.
Michael Syddall C of E Primary School
Funding Awarded: £25,378.23
Description: Funding to expand cycling and scooting through equipment purchase, maintenance training and staff development. The project targets reduced congestion, increased confidence and long‑term skill building for pupils and families.
West Cliff Primary School
Funding Awarded: £6,449.96
Description: Funding to expand cycling provision through clubs, Bikeability and staff training. The project targets pupils without bike access and embeds cycling into the wider school culture.
Sparks Project CIO
Funding Awarded: £19,957
Description: Funding to deliver ‘Life MAPS’, a structured behaviour‑change programme supporting adults facing low confidence, mental health challenges and inactivity in deprived Scarborough wards. Through facilitated group sessions, local walking activity and progression pathways, participants build confidence, social connection and readiness for active travel. The project links behaviour change to wider community walking provision, with robust evaluation and a scalable, preventative health model.
Refugee Action York (RAY)
Funding Awarded: £14,019.20
Description: A structured cycling pathway for refugees and asylum seekers, combining training, bike access and maintenance to improve independence, confidence and access to services.
Up For Yorkshire
Funding Awarded: £50,067.34
Description: Funding for an Active Travel Coordinator and community bike project to address transport poverty through access to refurbished bikes, skills and route confidence. Partnerships ensure reach and measurable behaviour change.
York Bike Belles CIC
Funding Awarded: £74,808
Description: Funding to deliver inclusive cycling programmes for women, older adults and people with health conditions. Activities include confidence‑building rides, maintenance workshops and volunteer leadership development.
North York Moors National Park Trust
Funding Awarded: £51,475.40
Description: Funding to employ a Programme Manager to scale the Natural Health Service across four Protected Landscapes. The role coordinates guided walks, green social prescribing, school cycling and family‑based active travel targeting inactivity, poor health and rural isolation.
Hambleton Community Action
Funding Awarded: £85,455
Description: A Wheels2Work e‑bike pilot supporting rural residents to access employment and training. Affordable hire‑to‑buy e‑bikes reduce reliance on cars, improve wellbeing and deliver low‑carbon transport in rural areas.
Performance in Education LTD
Funding Awarded: £27,120
Description:Further delivery of its active travel theatre programme in schools located in air‑quality management areas. The evidence‑based intervention promotes behaviour change at household level.
Sharow C of E Primary School
Funding Awarded: £5,850
Description: Funding to enhance early cycling skills through balance bikes, secure storage and maintenance workshops. The project embeds active travel habits early and builds staff capability for long‑term sustainability.
Barlby Bridge Community Primary School
Funding Awarded: £7,500
Description: Funding for covered cycle and scooter shelters supporting its OPAL play and active travel strategy. The project responds to strong parental demand and creates a durable school‑based active travel asset.
Living Streets (The Pedestrians' Association)
Funding Awarded: £65,000
Description: Stride by Stride York will support young women, girls and minority gender people aged 18–34 to walk and wheel more for everyday travel. Designed using the COM-B behaviour change model, the project will provide data and build capability, opportunity and motivation for young women and girls to choose active travel in York. Six months into delivery would see inclusive led walks, creative storytelling ‘walkshops’, cocreated Manifestos for Safer Streets, and emerging women-led affinity groups supporting regular walking/wheeling.
Art of Protest
Funding Awarded: £48,002.50
Description: Funding to deliver Clifton Crossroads, a place‑based active travel and wellbeing programme in Clifton (YO30 6EF), one of York’s most deprived communities. Working closely with City of York Council Active Travel and Public Realm teams, AOP will deliver a package of co‑designed wayfinding, light‑touch placemaking and five behaviour‑change initiatives including “Find Your Park” walks, family photography nature walks, orienteering, GoodGym litter‑picking and running groups, and a Clifton Commuter Campaign. Routes and underpasses will be visually improved, decluttered and signposted to connect homes, schools and green spaces.
Seamer and Irton CP School
Funding Awarded: £23,500
Description: Funding to establish a fleet of school bikes, shelters and maintenance skills training. The project addresses low cycling confidence and equipment access following Covid disruption, aiming to embed cycling as a normal, inclusive part of school life while reducing school‑run traffic.
Lowfield Green Housing Co-op
Funding Awarded: £19,500
Description: Funding to create a permanent community bike repair workshop and cargo bike hub in Acomb, York. The project includes a volunteer‑led repair workshop, shared secure cargo bike storage with loan bikes and a 24/7 public repair station. It addresses barriers of cost, bike theft and confidence, particularly for families. Strong local demand is evidenced by engagement and city‑wide cycling decline. Volunteer‑led delivery builds local skills and provides long‑term environmental and health benefits. Safeguarding policy to be finalised.
Richmond Yorkshire Community Interest Company
Funding Awarded: £89,878
Description: Comprehensive, community-led cycling programme operating across Richmond, built on strong existing foundations and expanding proven local delivery. Activity would be visible across schools, community spaces and key cycling locations, demonstrating a coordinated approach to embedding cycling into everyday life. Including After-school sessions, a programme of cycling events, regular “Dr Bike” type sessions in schools and at community events, alongside group rides and the development of Bike Bus routes to support safe journeys to school and reduce traffic congestion. The Bike Library will operate across two locations with secure storage and a trailer to transport bikes between schools, community venues and events, ensuring maximum flexibility. Donated bikes collected through community amnesty events will be refurbished, ensuring sustainability and safety. Young people will be trained in maintenance skills and supported to become peer mentors, creating a pathway from participation into leadership.
Pateley Bridge Town Council
Funding Awarded: £65,847
Description: This project will create a free, safe and accessible pump track in Pateley Bridge, supporting children, young people and families to develop cycling skills, confidence and independence close to home. In a rural area with limited transport options, this provides an important stepping stone towards more everyday cycling for short local journeys.
Get Cycling CIC
Funding Awarded: £100,000
Description: Funding to deliver an inclusive, mobile cycling programme supporting disabled people, older adults and those facing health barriers across multiple North Yorkshire locations. The project provides adapted cycle try‑outs, skills sessions, maintenance support and progression pathways from confidence‑building to independent everyday cycling. Strong demand is evidenced through partner referrals and previous delivery. The programme builds capacity within local organisations while reducing car dependency and improving health and wellbeing.
Friends of St Nicholas Fields Trading as St Nicks
Funding Awarded: £23,632.26
Description: Funding to improve access to a key walking and cycling route serving Tang Hall residents. The project removes physical barriers, adds seating and secure cycle storage, and improves route legibility, supporting families, disabled users and those less confident travelling actively. Volunteer involvement and community engagement underpin delivery, leaving a maintained, inclusive route that supports everyday active travel and reduces short car journeys.
