We will prioritise applications that target people who have become physically deconditioned because of the pandemic. We also want to work on more targeted projects to help diversifying the target audience who typically engage in cycling.
We will prioritise applications that engage:
- older people
- disabled people
- people with long-term health conditions
- ethnically diverse communities
- those with poor mental health
- Low Socio-Economic Groups
- women
Major mass participation sporting events like RideLondon-Essex inspire people to get active, bring people together and ignite communities. RideLondon-Essex came to the county for the first time in May 2022 and returned for the second time in May 2023, in a three-day cycling event that includes elite cyclists and also members of the public in a mass participation event. Although the mass participation cycling event starts and finishes in London, 65 miles of this route is on Essex roads as the ‘Host County’ for the event. Two stages of the women’s elite race was also held solely on Essex roads. It is therefore an opportunity not to be missed for Essex to use this event to inspire and support people in Essex to take up cycling as part of a healthy, active, and environmentally sustainable lifestyle. The Essex cycle grant hopes RideLondon-Essex will:
- Raise profile of walking and cycling
- help ECC raise awareness and generate excitement around the event in local, hard to reach communities. Help share messages to the more unlikely audiences
- help build community cohesion on the back of events
- Encourage local organisations and clubs to support the activation of RideLondon-Essex. We hope to enable local organisations to use RideLondon-Essex to try and attract new individuals and communities to get involved in the lead up to the event weekend (end of May).
Essex is one of the largest counties in England – both in terms of area and population – with a diverse make-up from the rural north of the county to the urban developments of the Thames Gateway. To treat Essex as a homogeneous whole is to ignore the significant variation in wealth, health and environment between our different communities. Through the levelling up Essex agenda areas of Basildon, Brentwood, Canvey Island, Chelmsford, Colchester, Rural Braintree, Tendring and Harlow have been highlighted as areas of focus, therefore more priority will be given to projects being delivered in these areas.