Swindon has racked up 319, 874.5 miles as part of its Beat the Street campaign!
Swindon racks up the Beat the Street Miles
The town has once again completed the Beat the Street challenge!
The town’s third Beat the Street game finished at 7pm on 27th October. It saw almost 30,000 people walking, cycling and rolling for points and prizes during the six-week challenge. Together, the town clocked up an active travel mileage of 319,874.5 miles.
The miles have been tallied, the points calculated and the winners announced. Aand this year, players have exceeded the town’s record mileage of 313,000 miles set in 2018.
Topping the leaderboard
Haydonleigh Primary School topped the total points leaderboard. Meanwhile Futile Footsteps came top of the average points leaderboard.
The chosen charities
Among the two chosen charities, Jessie May Children’s Hospice came first and will collect £350. And the Harbour Project came second and will win £150.
Debbie Yockney from Haydonleigh Primary School, who topped the school’s total leaderboard for the north west part of the town, said: ‘Haydonleigh children, parents and staff and our ‘Black cat’ mascot have again been utterly hooked on Beat the Street. We’ve enjoyed collecting points. Whether it’s 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’re always keen to encourage our members to stay active. Many take part in our regular activities which include football, tennis, swimming and cricket. Thus , 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 and it’s 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.
Beat the Street Swindon
Beat the Street comes to to you via Swindon Borough Council. It’s done in partnership with Wiltshire and Swindon Sport (WASP), and Swindon Healthy Schools. Intelligent Health deliver it.
Councillor Brian Ford, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Adults and Health, said: ‘It’s 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 got to know the area by foot. We’ve heard lovely anecdotes about people who’ve visited every Beat Box. And stories about conversations struck up and people trying out new activities and getting into healthy habits.
‘Congratulations to every player involved with Beat the Street. 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
Having taken part for two different years now: 2019 and 2021, I think the points and league tables are fundamentally unfair for the schools.
It’s no surprise that Haydon Leigh school should come out on top within our area due to three main reasons:
1) Haydon Leigh School has a significantly larger number of pupils compared to other schools in the area.
2) The location of Beatboxes. There are four Beat boxes within a close proximity of no. 35 at Haydon Leigh School spread around the catchment area for the school. These being: 34, 47, 48, and 49.
3) In addition there are several walking routes towards Haydon Leigh school that have three Beatboxes along the route. Notably: 53, 47, 35; 49, 48, 35; 52, 47, 35; 46, 47, 35; 52, 48, 35.
When you consider the geographic boundaries that both the River Ray and Thames Down Drive create for the catchment areas, you notice that other schools such as St Francis and Orchid Vale have significantly fewer boxes surrounding them. Typically these schools have only three satellite beat boxes. In particular, one of the satellite boxes to Orchid Vale, number 116 at the Orbital is in the worse position possible for pupils attending Orchid Vale walking from the east side of the school.
Another bug-bear is that the awarding of prizes for both Total and Average points has only two places for schools: First and Second Place; whereas for other groups that have registered themselves, there are three places: First, Second, and Third. This is grossly unfair.
I completely agree with James.
I also don’t understand why it’s this time of the year and not for a longer period like the summer holidays.
More boxes are needed along more cycle/walking routes away from roads, this would allow for less drive by cheating, safety of participants and also a chance to further explore the area in which people live
Congratulations to all winners and a massive well done everyone in swindon who took part:)
Hi Charlotte
It’s my understanding that the game is run in term time to encourage active travel to school. It’s run for 6-weeks to encourage the habit of activity to become a lifestyle choice.
Any longer than that and the game isn’t really meaningful.
Hello James
I’m merely the messenger here. But I’ll pass your comments on.