Grants available to create Tour de France cycling success

Rochdale is getting ready for the Tour de France, which visits on 6 July – and local groups and event organisers are being invited to apply for grants to support their plans to mark the occasion

To celebrate the second stage of Le Tour de France coming to the borough in July, £20,000 is available for local groups to make the visit of the sporting spectacular even more memorable.

Community groups and local event organisers can now apply for funding from the council to support events or activities that will help to showcase the borough either before, during or after the weekend of the race.

To be eligible, groups or organisations should put forward activities which will help to mark the historic visit of the tour to Littleborough. The council is particularly interested in ideas that encourage a healthy lifestyle and promote participation in sport, as well as activities that appeal to a wide range of people. To encourage a lasting legacy the council is also looking to support groups to run activities that will encourage new members.

Mark Widdup, Director of Economy and Environment at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “The visit of Le Tour de France to Rochdale this summer is going to be a fantastic occasion. The key for us is to make sure we celebrate the day, but also help to support local events to ensure the impact of the race spreads far and wide. This is why we are providing £20,000 of funding. If you are a community group or organisation based in the borough and have an event which is linked to cycling or the race, we would like to hear from you. Events don’t just have to be on 6 July, we are keen to look at all ideas for before or after the Sunday too. We hope the money will help to make event or celebrations happen, so please get in touch.”

Although only 1 km of the race is in Littleborough, the stretch is recognised as being one of the most fascinating sections of the route and is the culmination of the longest continuous hill climb in England.

Grant applications must be received by the closing date of 19 May.

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