A new guide to help people living in remote parts of Cumbria get money for transport services has been published.

Up to �10,000 pounds is available for ideas such as an extra bus service, car-sharing schemes or taxi-vouchers.

The Countryside Agency began the Parish Transport Grant last year to help people in rural communities meet their own local transport needs.

The organisation has produced a Get Your Community Moving leaflet to guide people through the process of applying for funding.

People living in the countryside who don't have access to a car often face great difficulties getting around

Nick Holliday Countryside Agency

Karen Spriggs, from the Countryside Agency, told BBC Radio Cumbria, the process can be quite confusing.

"Parishes and communities have been saying 'look we just don't know how on earth to get going with this scheme'.

"This is where the Get Your Community Moving guide has come from.

"It is the people who are left at home during the day, people who are caring for children, the elderley or the disabled, that we are trying to reach with the Parish Transport Grant.

"It is really about small scale solutions."

Car-sharing

Nick Holliday, head of the vital villages initiative at the Countryside Agency, said: "People living in the countryside who don't have access to a car often face great difficulties getting around.

"The Countryside Agency can help communities solve some of these problems by providing up to �1,000 for a parish or town council to work out their transport needs and up to �10,000 to help meet these needs.

"This funding doesn't have to be used to provide extra bus services - there are variety of types of transport that are often more suited to the needs of people living in the countryside, such as car-sharing or taxi-voucher schemes."