Minister Mallon announces £85,000 for local road safety initiatives

Date published: 18 November 2021

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Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon has allocated £85,000 for local road safety initiatives funded by the Department’s Road Safety (Safe Travel) Grant Scheme.

Minister Mallon - Road Safety Grant Scheme

Minister Mallon said:

“As I confirmed when I launched the consultation on the draft Road Safety Strategy to 2030, road safety is a priority for me and I am committed to doing all I can to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads. We all share the roads and we all share responsibility for road safety.

“I recognise the vital role the voluntary and community sector plays through delivery of community-led road safety initiatives. That is why I continue to support local groups and organisations to deliver local road safety initiatives through my Department’s Road Safety Grant Scheme. This funding enables powerful road safety messages to be delivered to the heart of communities addressing their specific road safety problems.

“I am delighted today, during Road Safety Week, to announce that 15 groups and organisations from across Northern Ireland have been successful in securing funding totalling £85,000.  I look forward to seeing the difference these initiatives will make in raising awareness in local communities of safe road user behaviour and promoting safe active travel.”

The Minister continued:

“Already this year 39 people have been killed on our roads and many families’ lives destroyed.  Road safety impacts on us all and we all must make better choices and safer decisions on every journey. One road death is one too many.”

Notes to editors: 

  1. Photo caption – Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon joins Stephen McNally, Director of Cycul, one of the 15 groups set to receive funding from the Department for Infrastructure’s Road Safety Grant Scheme. Cycul aims to create an introductory cycle project in North Belfast to encourage people to cycle more in their immediate area.
  2. Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon launched the 2021/22 Road Safety (Safe Travel) Grant Scheme on 22 September 2021.
  3. The scheme offered individuals and community groups an opportunity to apply for funding of up to £10,000 to develop and deliver local road safety initiatives.
  4. The organisations which will benefit from funding are as follows:

1st Dromore Scouts - Newry / Dromore

£4,357.48                               

The applicant would want to run several sessions over a 2 - 3 week program with their scouts aged 6-17 years on the safe use of bicycles on our roads as well as the maintenance of them to ensure they are fit for purpose.

Armagh, Banbridge & Craigavon RSC - Armagh, Banbridge & Craigavon area

£9,414.00                   

The ABC Road Safety Committee Safe Travel project is about raising awareness of being seen whilst walking, jogging, or cycling on roads, too often people get a free high vis vest and never wear this, they believe that it is important to have a conversation around this to get a strong message across about being safe and seen. They also plan to promote better Road safety to the Young Farmers clubs in this area, around tractor and car safety on the roads.

BEAM Creative Network - Across Northern Ireland

£9,960.00                               

This project will adapt, develop and produce an interactive screen play which can be distributed all post primary schools in Northern Ireland. The screenplay will include characters local to Northern Ireland that young people can relate to and flashbacks which illustrate a range of road safety stories in a sensitive manner suitable for this audience age group.

Boho Youth Club - Boho, Co Fermanagh

£2,561.60       

This road safety project will coincide with Road Safety Week. Most young people who live in the area use bikes or walking as a mode of transport to attend the youth club or to meet up with friends, play sports or general exercise. This programme will reinforce the importance of road safety, promote safety on our roads, especially rural roads, help reduce the risk of collisions and ensure all our young people are safely equipped for the road.

Carrickfergus Road Safety Committee - Carrickfergus area

£2,256.00

The aim is to provide 3 projects. These projects are:

  • Road Safety Quiz
  • Road safety focused quiz including 13 schools in the borough that is conducted by a member of the PSNI.

  • Poster Competition
  • Participants will be required to draw a picture highlighting the necessary steps to cross the road safely.

  • See and Be Seen

This project will encourage cyclists to be seen and will involve the purchase of hi-vis items.

Central Business District (BID) Ltd - (Linen Quarter BID) - Central Belfast

£7,300.00

This project will involve the setting up of a number of marquees / gazebos in a publicly accessible location in Belfast City centre to facilitate a number of public facing services that include bike repair / repurposing; PSNI bike marking; provision of bike safety equipment; and raising awareness of safe active travel routes such as Belfast greenways.

CYCUL - Craigavon area

£9,077.00                               

The aim of the project is to map the “black paths”, produce a promotional web resource, create sharable GPS files, place the network on Google Street View and to hopefully increase the numbers of people using the Black Paths in the Craigavon area, for both leisure and utility purposes. Then to organise a group cycle for residents/business in the area to promote the Black Paths as an exemplar of an active travel network.

CYCUL - North Belfast

£3,366.00                   

This project aims to create an introductory cycle project in North Belfast to lower the anxiety of “Interested but Concerned” cyclists and encourage them to cycle more in their immediate area.

Healthy Kidz CIC - Co. Armagh

£10,000.00

This road safety project will be focussed on supporting 15 primary schools to provide a road safety and physical activity programme for their pupils and their parents.

Healthy Kidz will specifically engage with young boys and girls aged 9-11 years. Each session, will be a combination of informational workshops, followed by physical activity-based sessions that will have Road Safety themes throughout.

Maghery Matters Regeneration Group - Maghery, Co Armagh

£1,268.89                               

This project intends organising bicycle maintenance sessions for children and adults to encourage safe cycling and teach basic bicycle repairs and checks and to organise and hold road safety sessions in the playgroup and to supply armbands to help parents and children to be visible when walking and cycling.

New Driver Safety Ambassador Limited - Across Northern Ireland

£9,533.00

New Driver Safety Ambassasdors Ltd plans to offer their Green Safe Motoring Presentations to schools throughout Northern Ireland.

 

The presentation will teach them about all things motoring especially road safety and how it can affect them, their friends and family if they are involved in a serious road traffic collision; and discuss the alternatives to driving, like walking, cycling and public transport and buying an electric vehicle.

Road Safe NI - Across Northern Ireland

£3,548.50

The project is to develop an educational video to teach children (aged 8-11) the green cross code and to support children to learn about using the road safely while helping them to understand and apply key road safety messages, ultimately promoting positive health, safety and well-being.

Roddensvale Parents & Friends Association - Larne area

£1,595.82                               

Roddensvale School is for pupils who have Severe Learning Difficulties many of which have no awareness of danger.

For the Junior Department they would like to introduce children’s high visibility vests with the school name or logo on the back which would allow road users to see the children are from Roddensvale and hopefully see that a child may be finding it difficult to cross the road or that it may be taking a little longer than normal.

For the Secondary Department they would like to provide a road safety poster competition which they would make into canvases/banners for the school fence. Many of their secondary pupils go out on their bikes like other teenagers.

The Bridge NI - Dungannon area

£5,363.00                               

A short public information film highlighting who should enter an advance stop line (ASL or Cycle Box) and how to use it. Its relatively recent introduction into the road network may have escaped the attention of road users who would have taken a traffic test prior to their introduction date leaving many road users unaware that ASLs are for cyclists only. This lack of clarity has led to confusion and confrontation among many road users particularly when cyclists are making a left turn.

The HEART Project - Falls Area, West Belfast

£5,173.88                               

This project is based around supporting and encouraging adults to choose to travel their everyday journeys by bicycle.

To facilitate this, the HEART project need to develop the knowledge and skills required for confident cycling, particularly for those adults who have just rediscovered their bike for those who have had a scare while cycling, or for those who haven’t had the opportunity to cycle at all.

  1. All media queries should be directed to the Department for Infrastructure Press Office at: press.office@infrastructure-ni.gov.uk
  2. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.
  3. Follow the Department on Twitter @deptinfra and on Facebook @DepartmentforInfrastructure

 

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