Swindon celebrates travelling 252,126.5 miles for Beat the Street

A community celebration event was held this weekend to reward everyone who took part in the popular Beat the Street Swindon initiative.

Local residents, businesses, and community groups and came together at Lydiard Park to receive their prizes and to celebrate travelling an incredible 252,126.5 miles together during Beat the Street.

Over a six-week game taking place from 25th September to 6th November, Beat the Street transformed Swindon into a giant walking, running and cycling game where residents formed teams and walked, cycled and ran around their community tapping special Beat Boxes on lampposts in order to score points.

More than 25,000 residents took part in the physical activity competition with schools, community teams and workplaces competing to see who could travel the furthest.

The community celebration event saw the top charity and non-schools teams presented with their prizes by Beat the Street Swindon co-ordinator Stuart Arthur.

The Swindon and North Wilts Deaf Children Society were runners-up on the charity leaderboard, behind CALM (Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Movement).  Emily Morgan from the Swindon and North Wilts Deaf Children Society attended the event and collected a charity donation.

She said: “This year we were a charity team for Beat the Street, which meant that people could choose to play for us in a bid to receive a donation for our charity. Beat the Street was a great activity for us to do as a group as all the children and families could join in”.

Beat the Street was delivered by Intelligent Health and funded by The National Lottery on behalf of Sport England, and Swindon Borough Council.

Stuart Arthur said: “The Beat the Street competition has been the talk of the town for the past couple of months. It was an honour to hear stories from people who had wonderful things to say about the game.

“From families taking the time to get active together, to people with long-term health conditions and to schools really taking up the challenge, it’s been fantastic to see so many people outside, being active and enjoying themselves in our beautiful area.”

There is still the opportunity to win prizes as players are invited to give their feedback on the scheme so that the impact can be measured in the hope that the game might return in the future. A five-minute survey can be found online and everyone who completes the questionnaire will be in with a chance of winning £100 in vouchers or a Lego set.

Although the game may be over for now, Beat the Street will still be here encouraging participants to stay active and to highlight exciting local initiatives and opportunities to keep people moving. Players are also encouraged to keep hold of their cards as the organisers of the six-week initiative plan to encourage residents to stay active through further events and initiatives in the coming months.