Nottingham City Council’s Workplace Travel Service celebrates milestone and announces new funding stream

Nottingham City Council’s Transforming Cities-funded Workplace Travel Service has wrapped up after two years after helping 87 local businesses and organisations.  

Although the initial Government support for Nottingham City Council’s Transforming Cities-funded Workplace Travel Service has ended, the authority has another stream of funding for 2024/2025. This comes from the Government’s Local Transport Plan Integrated Transport Block, which means the team can assist more local businesses and organisations with sustainable travel improvements. 

In the past two years, the Workplace Travel Service has:  

• Worked with 87 local businesses and organisations to support them with either 100% or 75% funded improvements 
• Awarded more than £800,000 in grants to enable the installation of green travel measures, including EV chargers, bike shelters, pool e-bikes and more 

Recently the programme installed four 22 kW 3 phase EV charging points at A.N. Wallis, a Bulwell business which manufactures earthing, lightning protection and other electrical items for projects around the world. The company plans to offer free charging for staff with electric vehicles to encourage them to ditch more polluting cars. 

After A.N. Wallis applied for help to install the charging points, the Council provided a grant of £9,271 to cover the work. A.N. Wallis contributed 25% towards the overall cost. 

Simon Sorsby, Engineering Director at A.N. Wallis, said: “As a local manufacturer working on many renewable projects nationwide, sustainability is very important to us and a key part of our ongoing efforts to be a good corporate citizen in everything we do.  

“We decided to apply for the grant to charge both our company EV vehicles and allow our employees to charge up at work too, encouraging them to switch away from petrol and diesel cars.  

“Assisted by our new charge points, we plan to move our company fleet to 100% electric by 2025, helping us save 32 tonnes of CO2 a year. “ 

Nottingham’s 2 Michelin Star Restaurant Sat Bains has also taken advantage of the scheme to install a 22kW dual charger – with the ability to charge two cars at once. The new chargers will mean customers who travel to visit the restaurant and rooms can charge their EVs, as well as encouraging staff to switch to EVs. 

The environment is a top priority for the restaurant, where around a third of staff already cycle to work and all food waste is composted. The restaurant and hotel has also installed solar panels. Nottingham City Council provided Restaurant Sat Bains with a grant of £4,739. 

Sat Bains, of Restaurant Sat Bains, said: “Everyone in our business works together to be as green as possible, so we were happy to jump on this opportunity to help with the installation costs of EV charging points.  

The process was simple with plenty of support from the team.” 

Councillor Angela Kandola, Portfolio Holder for Highways, Transport and Planning at Nottingham City Council, said: “Helping local businesses and other organisations become greener and cut harmful air pollution is a key goal of the City Council, and I’m delighted that our Workplace Travel Service can continue to make a big difference locally thanks to this new Government funding.” 

“I encourage all local businesses, groups, charities and public sector organisations to think about what green travel improvements they could benefit from and then apply via our friendly team.”  

Nottingham City Council’s Workplace Travel Service team has also supported public-sector and charity organisations such as Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust, Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service for both operational vehicles and staff charging. 

Notes   

 In order to qualify, a business or organisation needs to be based within the Nottingham City boundary. Businesses contribute 25 per cent towards the costs of any scheme, but public-sector, voluntary or charitable groups are fully funded.  

Who qualifies?  

• Those within Nottingham city boundary  
• Businesses of any size  
• Public sector organisations  
• Charity or voluntary organisations or groups   
• Faith groups 

 Businesses contribute 25% towards the costs. Public sector, voluntary and charity groups are 100% funded.   

The scheme works as follows:   

• Submit an expression of interest via the Transport Nottingham website  
• The City Council will provide information on how to apply and a panel at the authority meets monthly to award grants   
• A decision is made within a month to six weeks