BEAT THE STREET LAUNCHES IN ANNAN AND DALBEATTIE

From the 1st of September, residents of Annan/Dalbeattie will be encouraged to take to the street and help each community reach the goal of ‘walking around the world’. Locals can walk, run, cycle, scoot, skate or skip between locations during the 6 week campaign in order to win prizes for themselves and their communities.

Beat The Street An activity-based Scheme run by Intelligent Health

What is it? • A fun, free, walking, running, cycling 6 week challenge where an entire neighbourhood turns into a ‘game’ framework.
• Aim is for players collect points for the number of miles that they travel ‘round the world with a target set for the entire community to achieve.
• Everyone can take part and there are opportunities for players to win prizes

How does it work? •  Beat the Street ‘Beat Boxes’ are placed at regular (approx. ½ mile) intervals throughout a neighbourhood (usually on a lamp-post)
• A downloadable map is available online
• Beat Boxes are actually sensors and are ‘activated’ by a RFID card or key fob
• Beat Box ‘beeps’ and ‘flashes’ to acknowledge the card
• A ‘journey’ between two boxes or more needs to be made in order to register points which are recorded in real time and updated automatically on a neighbourhood website.
• Teams of up to 25 people – can be made up of mixed abilities, ages, work or schoolplaces, compete against each other to gain the highest number of points.

Prize Highest number of points at end of scheme wins a community prize

Who Everyone can take part – all ages and levels of fitness, but the game is based in the allocated neighbourhood areas
No driving between boxes permitted! (we know who is cheating!)

Where • Annan & Dalbeattie (Dumfries & Galloway)
When 6 week scheme
• 1 Sept – 12 Oct – Annan & Dalbeattie (Dumfries & Galloway)
Duration 6 week Scheme
• Boxes are ‘open’ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during scheme
• Evolves during the process with incentives, Bonus Points, Double Points, ‘Lucky Tap’ and Special Weekend Activities during the Scheme.

Benefits • Easy to access and participate – just get up and walk/cycle/run!
• Encourages people to reach minimum requirements for daily activity by making a small change on a daily basis
• School can incorporate the scheme into their syllabus i.e. geography mapping, mats, healthy living (PSHE), PE, Art, Poetry etc
• Walking for just 30 mins every day, 5 days a week has major health benefits by reducing the risks of developing heart (cardiovascular) disease, diabetes, cancers, dementia, depression and anxiety and actually can also improve the health of those who already have these conditions)

Facts & Figures • An evidence-based intervention which increases activity levels of at least 10% of a community
• Return on investment: for every £1 spent – there is a £10 return
Evaluation 2014 Beat the Street Scheme run in Reading evidence:

• 78% of people said that the scheme helped them walk more than usual
• 70% of people said that they continued to walk more after the scheme ended
• 76% of people said that they would try to continue the changes after the scheme ended
• 75% of people continued to be more after 2-3 months after the end of the scheme

Quotes  participants in Annan:

“Absolutely brilliant to see so many people of all ages out doing Beat the Street tonight – maps in one hand, fobs in the other (for those organised enough to have the map!!). Bagged a few points myself at the end of my bike ride for a bit of fun!”

“My son’s away to bed so excited to do Beat the street again on the way to nursery in the morning! He’s gained 160 points today, and I’ve never seen so many families/people out walking/running and cycling in Annan at once!

The concept is to turn Annan/Dalbeattie into a real-life walking game where players register their movement by tapping their cards or fobs on any of the twenty ‘beat boxes’ placed around the town on lamp-posts. There will be one movable box which we hope to move to any events happening in the area allowing participants to walk to the event and earn points. The boxes flash and beep to register activity, tapping at least two within one hour records the journey.

It’s free to take part and players just need to register their Beat the Street card online to get started. Everyone taking part will be able to track their own movements, see how many miles they have done, watch the communities’ progress in reaching the final goal, find out where boxes are located and send pictures and tweets when they are out and about. All young people will have received fobs and welcome packs from school, to help explain the competition.

You can register as a team and there will be a leader board providing details of the teams doing the most miles, helping to reach the target to walking around the world. You will be able to see the leader board change every day as people try and do their bit to help their team ‘Beat the Street’.

Annandale and Eskdale Area Chairman, Ronnie Ogilvie, said “Beat the Street is an exercise challenge which aims to get the whole community involved. The main aim is increasing physical activity levels whilst still being fun. There are health benefits of walking even just for half an hour per day, so we are hoping that throughout the 6 weeks and afterwards the health and fitness of participants will be improved. Participants can compete individually or in a group of 12. The groups can be from work, sports clubs or hobbies, allowing people to be sociable and active. We will be encouraging groups to sign up before the launch. We want We are excited about the launch of this project and think it will be beneficial in bringing the community together and engaging them in physical exercise. I’ve already got my card and I’m signed up so I’ll be getting out and taking part. I’m looking forward to meeting people taking part in the challenge as walk round Annan.”

This will mark the first time that a Beat the Street competition has been run in Scotland, after previous success in various locations in England. It is funded by Dumfries and Galloway Council in an effort to promote healthier lifestyles and active travel.

Reading ran the competition in 2014, and recorded positive health statistics.
At the beginning of the competitions 30% of people reported meeting the Department of Health’s guidelines for levels of activity (30 minutes for 5 or more days a week). By the end of the competition this had increased to 45% and after three months at least 53% reported they were meeting the recommendations and continued habits developed during the competition. 12% of adults had a long-term condition such as COPD, arthritis or diabetes. Around three quarters of people said they continued to walk more and be more active after Beat the Street ended. Around 40-50% said they continued to use their cars less.