Communities across Ferryhill, Chilton and Chester-le-Street have completed the region’s first game of Beat the Street.

Over seven weeks, Beat the Street successfully transformed both communities into a giant walking, running and cycling game with residents racing around tapping special Beat Boxes on lampposts to collect points. Twenty-six schools, five community groups and members of the public competed against each other to see who could travel the furthest to win some fantastic prizes. Working in partnership with other organisations, we were able to organise 63 events, including family walks, bike rides and local activities that incorporated tapping the boxes to encourage people to get out and about and collect more points.

At the end of the game, a total of 8,193 people were recorded to have played, travelling an amazing 67,254 miles – approximately 2.5 times around the world.

This fantastic news was celebrated at Beat the Street events in Ferryhill and Chester-le-Street, where schoolchildren and members of the community were congratulated on their achievement.

Since the project finished, surveys, community consultation events and anecdotal feedback have shown that the project has had a huge positive impact on the community. It has helped improve people’s health, through losing weight, to feeling better and meeting new friends and has also encouraged families to spend quality time together. However, the main benefit has been motivating people to be more active. It gives people a reason to go out for a walk, encourages them to cycle and walk to the shops, school or work to collect more points and to walk further and explore new areas.

Beat the Street is an initiative run by Intelligent Health on behalf of Durham County Council. Lorraine Rasmussen from Intelligent Health said: “Congratulations to each and every person who has taken part in Beat the Street.

“The competition has been very much the talk of the town for the past few weeks and we’ve heard from many people who say they will miss the Beat Boxes. However, if you’ve enjoyed Beat the Street, please keep up the great work and continue to walk, cycle and stay active. We hope you’ve enjoyed it!”

The next steps are to continue supporting those people who took part to keep active beyond the game. Beat the Street will be working with local partners to promote existing activities in local parks and facilities, as well as developing new activities in response to the evaluation programme.

Although, the live game has finished, Beat the Street has not disappeared. Beat the Street will be releasing information on ways to keep active on its Facebook pages: Beat the Street Ferryhill and Beat the Street Chester le Street and in local newspapers.

Please contact Lorraine Rasmussen, Engagement Manager for more information on either (07584 703 813) or email (lorraine.rasmussen@intelligenthealth.co.uk)

This Girl Can is a national campaign developed by Sport England and a wide range of partnership organisations. It’s a celebration of active women up and down the country who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets.

The initiative highlights a broad range of indoor and outdoor physical activities from archery and boxing to rugby and volley ball.

It encourages women of all ages and abilities to try something new and emphasises the wider benefits of sport such as in giving people confidence and enhancing their physical and mental wellbeing.

Find out more at www.thisgirlcan.co.uk