Will Lottery foot the bill for Ulster paths?

By Linda McKee – 31 October 2007

Six walkway projects across Northern Ireland are in line for a £3.1 million windfall if a UK-wide Lottery bid succeeds.

The Sustrans Connect2 application for a £50 million funding cache has reached the final stage of the Big Lottery Fund's The People's £50 Million contest.

If the bid succeeds in capturing the public vote, it will mean the creation of a network of walking and cycling routes at six locations in Northern Ireland.

These include the Omagh riverside path, which will feature a number of new bridges, the Strabane River Mourne Bridge and links, Dungannon Park connections and the Derry/Londonderry Greenway and Cyclepath scheme.

And the east hasn't been forgotten, with proposals to create the Newtownabbey to Belfast Lough Three Miles Water Greenway as well as the Ballymoney Railway Bridge and links.

Four organisations, including Sustrans Connect2 project, are competing for the £50 million grant to be decided by public vote on ITV1 this December.

Connect2 will improve travel in 79 communities across the UK by building walking and cycling bridges and tunnels, developing links, and even re-instating a ferry, Sustrans says. It will also bring people closer together by making journeys quicker, healthier and more convenient.

Sustrans says that six million people across the UK live within a mile of the proposed schemes, including one million schoolchildren. It is estimated that 79,000 tonnes of carbon emissions could be saved annually once the projects are completed.

TV presenter Lorraine Kelly is supporting the bid along with former minister Charles Clarke, TV presenter Adam Hart Davies, Red or Dead's Wayne Hemingway and Ken Livingstone.

" How many times have we stood on the edge of a road waiting for traffic to ease or had to travel miles out of our way to get to the one bridge over the river?" Lorraine Kelly says.

"Connect2 deals with these daily challenges and gives us the option to do the journey in a way that helps the environment.

"And, of course, it gets us fit - forget the gym, this is the answer to our obesity problems."

Steven Patterson, Northern Ireland manager with Sustrans, says: "With more than 175,000 people in Northern Ireland living within one mile of the proposed cycling and walking schemes, we would urge everyone to vote for Connect2."

Each project will be the subject of a programme on ITV1 in the week starting December 3. Sustrans Connect2 will be featured on Tuesday December 4.

Further information can be found at www.thepeoples50million.org.uk .