Councils can apply for a share of £200 million to help improve walking, wheeling and cycling in their areas.
The funding – from Active Travel England, the government executive agency responsible for increasing walking, wheeling and cycling – could be used to provide more paths in rural areas, new routes for children to walk to school, and more inclusive street designs to support people using wheelchairs and mobility scooters.
As part of their projects, councils have been urged to take into account women’s safety when walking alone at night.
Government figures show 46 per cent of children aged five to 16 walked or cycled to school in England in 2021, with the target to make this 55 per cent by 2025.
Cllr David Renard, LGA Transport Spokesperson, said: “Transport is the biggest source of carbon emissions in the UK and thousands of people are prematurely killed every year from traffic-related pollution.
“As a country, we can’t meet our climate-change targets and clean our toxic air without increasing levels of walking and cycling within our local communities.
“It’s helpful that the Government recognises capacity constraints that councils face and this funding will support them with efforts to get more people out of their cars and using greener forms of transport.
“However, funding must be delivered to where it is needed the most, not based on costly competitive bids between areas.”