Improving access to employment and training in former coalfields areas in the UK: The Access Alliance Programme

The Access Alliance Programme (the AAP) was a £1 million funding programme to support and develop sustainable transport schemes to improve access to employment and training opportunities for residents of the former coalfields areas of north Nottinghamshire and north Derbyshire in the UK. Over a four-year period, the AAP funded almost 60 schemes and, by March 2011, it will have created or safeguarded approximately 40 jobs, assisted over 800 people to get a job, assisted 150 businesses to improve their performance and assisted 2500 people to improve their skills.This unique funding programme has demonstrated the value of a transport funding pot designed to promote economic and social regeneration, managed by an independent organisation free from the restrictions of local government regulation. A template has been developed for the AAP as a whole and for individual transport solutions, which could be replicated at the local, regional, national and international scale.