A bid to create an electric car club in the Upper Amman Valley has been handed a major funding boost by the National Lottery.

The Charge Up Wales project, which will also set up schemes in other communities across Wales, will benefit from almost £500,000.

Seven new community-owned car clubs will be established.

It is hoped the initiative will significantly reduce carbon emissions across Wales, provide more transport and connection opportunities for those without cars, and help families on lower incomes.

Clubs will be started in the communities of Upper Amman Valley, Penygroes, Llanfyrnach, Kilgetty and Llanteg, Pennard, Pen Llyn, Brecon and Crickhowell, They will link up with existing car clubs as part of a campaign to create a Wales-wide network.

Community Energy Wales, the leading partner of the project, stated that this was a chance to “create community solutions to cut carbon emissions and play our part in the fight against the climate disaster.”

The National Lottery said they were “proud” to support the project and described it as a “powerful way to engage communities all over Wales”.

The national shared transport charity Collaborative Mobility UK (CoMoUK) is the monitoring and evaluation partner on the project and hailed the funding award which will “create greener transport opportunities in rural communities”.

Other organisations involved in the project are Awel Aman Tawe, Carmarthenshire Energy, The Green Valleys, Community Energy Pembrokeshire, Datblygiadau Egni Gwledig, Cwm Arian Renewables, CTA Cymru and TrydaNi.

Rising numbers of people across Britain signing up to car clubs has led to almost 100,000 private vehicles being taken off the road, recent research from CoMoUK revealed.

It found that on average across Britain each car club vehicle results in 18.5 private cars being replaced.

Robert Proctor, business development manager at Community Energy Wales, said: “We are very excited to receive this fund to build a Wales-wide EV Community Car club project.

“We’re working with a range of partners and community organisations in Wales to see this project through.

“Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund, we can start to explore new models of ownership for cars and create community solutions to cut carbon emissions and play our part in the fight against the climate disaster.”