Almost 30,000 Swindonians took part in the third Beat the Street challenge, walking, cycling and rolling for points and prizes during the six-week challenge, clocking up 319,874.5 miles in the process.
Swindon’s previous record mileage was set in 2018 when more than 313,000 miles were achieved.
With all of the miles tallied, the points have been counted and the winners have been announced, and this year, Haydonleigh Primary School topped the total points leaderboard and Futile Footsteps came top of the average points leaderboard.
Debbie Yockney from Haydonleigh Primary School, who topped the schools total leaderboard for the north west part of the town, said: “Haydonleigh children, parents and staff and our ‘Black cat’ mascot have once again been totally hooked on Beat the Street and enjoying collecting points whether it is joining in with an evening group walk, on their way to and from school or out walking the dog.”
Cailey Whitcher, Secretary of the Swindon Down’s Syndrome Group said: “Quite a few of us took part in Beat the Street in 2018 so it was an obvious decision to set up a team this time around.
“We are always keen to encourage our members to stay active and many take part in our regular activities which include football, tennis, swimming and cricket. Therefore, schemes such as Beat the Street are a great way to get and remain active, even while going about normal daily activities like walking the dog or going to school. It’s great fun too, and very inclusive so everyone can be involved.
“We love the fact that players in Swindon can choose to be part of our team, we’d like to thank everyone who joined the Swindon Down’s Syndrome Group team for their support in helping to raise further awareness of the amazing things that our members continue to achieve.
Among the charities that took part, Jessie May Children’s Hospice came first and will collect £350 and the Harbour Project came second and will win £150.
Councillor Brian Ford, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Adults and Health, said: “It has once again been a great experience to see Beat the Street taking place across Swindon and we’d like to thank everyone who took part.
“We’ve heard from people who have got fitter, spent more quality time together as a family and have really got to know the local area by foot. We’ve heard lovely anecdotes about people who’ve visited every Beat Box, stories about conversations being struck up and people trying out new activities and getting into healthy habits.
“Congratulations to each and every player who got involved with Beat the Street and took the time to come and visit the Beat Boxes. We hope that people will continue to walk or cycle to get around our town and will continue to enjoy being active.”
To stay involved with Beat the Street news, sign up to the newsletter at www.beatthestreet.me/swindon.
For more information on the small lifestyle changes that individuals and organisations can make to reduce their carbon footprint, click onto www.swindon.gov.uk/bethechange
