North Ayrshire Council have approved a number of Active Travel and Transport projects following a series of successful funding bids.

A total of eight separate projects are to benefit from more than £2 million in external funding secured since January this year.

£400k of funding from Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT) will go towards improving bus travel in North Ayrshire, with plans including improvement of bus stops to create a more attractive environment for passengers, as well as the implementation of a traffic control system to provide bus priority traffic lights in Irvine and Kilwinning, easing bus route congestion.

Over £500k has been also been awarded by SPT to help improve bus infrastructure and interchange facilities as part of the overall Irvine Town Centre Public Realm programme, and £250k from the transport partnership will be spent studying the impact of Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) at the ferry slipways on the Isle of Cumbrae and at Largs and implementing the recommendations.

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A further £250k has been secured from SPT, which will go towards making Irvine a more cycle-friendly town, with existing paths being upgraded to an all abilities and multi user access standard, improving connections to housing, employment and the town centre.

£204k has also been awarded from Paths for All towards a range of activities encouraging active and sustainable travel through the Travel Smart project.

Another £6.3m of funding applications for 14 projects are yet to be decided, with applications for funding for another six projects totalling over £1.5m to be submitted later this year.

Councillor Alex Gallagher, Cabinet Member for Economy, said: "High quality, affordable public transport and active travel opportunities for everyday journeys are absolutely vital to our local communities in North Ayrshire.

"We are thrilled to have received funding for these worthwhile projects and look forward to seeing the results of them in the future."

(MH/CM)