Beat the Street game returning to Burnley next spring

Beat the Street proved a massive success when it first launched in 2021 to encourage people of all ages to get moving by seeing how far they could walk, cycle, skate and scoot through the borough’s streets. The six-week initiative attracted more than 10,500 participants who collectively clocked up 80,346 miles.

This time the fun, free game will again use special ‘beat boxes’ attached to lampposts around the town to encourage schools, workplaces, community groups, library users, sports clubs, childcare providers, and anyone else who wants to take part, to cover the miles and scan the boxes to collect as many points as possible.

Cheryl Goodman, Health Partnership Manager at Burnley Leisure and Culture (BLC), which organised the game with south west Burnley Together forum, said: “The points will equate to trees to be planted at the participants’ workplaces, schools and green spaces, and we’ll then get them involved in the planting.

“In addition to that, we're looking at a partnership with Burnley Borough Council to employ a community gardener, who could support the tree planting, but also tour the borough to share his or her skills and experience to help communities cultivate and maintain their local green spaces and create pride in the place they live.”

Beat the Street is just one element of a much bigger initiative to encourage more people to enjoy the great outdoors – especially those on their doorstep.

Known as Together an Active Future (TaAF), it is part of a £10m initiative with funding from Sport England. TaAf covers all of Pennine Lancashire, and similar schemes to Burnley’s - but with their own themes - are being run in neighbouring boroughs including the Ribble Valley, Rossendale, Pendle, Hyndburn, and Blackburn with Darwen.

Cheryl says: “We want more people to be active, it’s as simple as that. Whatever you’re doing, whether it’s a bit of gardening, walking the dog, or just pottering about; inevitably, when you go outside, you’re active and you’re moving around.”