The game is afoot as district sets challenge

BID TO GET PEOPLE MORE ACTIVE

A PHYSICAL activity game taken up by more than 10,000 people in a district last year will return next month.

Beat the Street saw people in Blaby district walk, cycle, run or scoot 93,000 miles over six weeks.

The district council said the proportion of children who met the national recommended guidelines of physical activity, of 60 minutes per day, rose from 47 per cent before the game to 65 per cent afterwards.

Among adult players, prior to the game, 21 per cent were completely inactive, doing less than 30 minutes of exercise per week.

After the game this dropped to 11 per cent of players.

Councillor Sharon Coe, portfolio holder for health at the council, said: “We are excited to be bringing Beat the Street back to the district and we can’t wait to see if we can beat our previous mileage of 93,000.

“The idea of the game is to encourage people to ditch the car, walk to school or work and to get more active.

“The feedback from participants was incredibly positive. Not only did people enjoy walking, cycling and running, they also reported less congestion, more family and social time plus finding new places close by that they’d not visited before.

“It’s open to everyone, so please keep an eye out for more information including where you can pick up a free card.”

Pupils at participating primary schools will be provided with fobs while their parents and teachers will receive a card from the school so they can accompany the children.

These can then be registered to the school team to help them to score points.

The wider community can pick up a contactless card from a distribution point which will be listed on thebeatthestreet.me/blaby website.

Players then walk or cycle between the 105 Beat Boxes which are spaced half a mile apart, tapping the fobs or cards as they go.

The further players travel, the more points they score.

Blaby residents are also encouraged to enter workplaces, community groups and sports groups into the game.

Beat the Street is being delivered by Intelligent Health and funded by Blaby District Council, Leicestershire County Council, a National Lottery funding grant from Sport England and the Canal and River Trust.

The game will run this year from February 26 to April 8.

More information is available at: