Beat the Street Burnley comes to an end after successful six weeks

Beat the Street is a free, interactive game that encourages people of all ages to make physical activity part of their everyday lives, rewarding teams with points and prizes the further they travel on foot, by bike and by scooter.

Together, participants clocked up 155,121 active travel miles, before the end came to an end at 7pm on Wednesday, June 21st. The end of the game coincided with the Burnley Leisure and Culture Summer Solstice Walk at Barden athletics track from 4-39am to 9-41pm to mark the longest day of the year.

Winners

Schools total points:

Burnley St Stephen’s CofE Primary School; Rosewood Primary School; Burnley Brunshaw Primary School; St Mary Magdalene’s RC Primary School.

Schools average points:

Burnley St Stephen’s CofE Primary School; St Mary Magdalene’s RC Primary School; Rosegrove Infant School; Rosewood Primary School.

Community and workplace teams – total points:

Wellies, sprogs and dogs; Cherry Tree Bakery Team; Rockwood Nursery School.

Community and workplace teams – average points:

Wellies, sprogs and dogs; Cherry Tree Bakery Team; Burnley West Health and Wellbeing Team.

Running and cycling teams – total points:

Pendle Forest Orienteers; Mel-Soph; Hunters.

Running and cycling team – average points:

Pendle Forest Orienteers; Mel-Soph; Hunters.

Small Teams – total points:

Lancashire Wildlife Trust.

Charity - Total points:

Burnley Community Grocery; Georgia Fourie Butterfly Fund.

The individual leaderboard was Daniel Heys who played for the Rosewood School team. Not only did he accrue the highest number of points in the Beat the Street Burnley game, but also set out one day to cover every single Beat Box in the game – the equivalent of almost two marathons.

He said: “I was introduced to Beat the Street when my stepdaughter Flo came home from Rosewood School asking us to take her out.

“We have enjoyed family walks everyday scanning as many Beat Boxes as we can to gather points for the school, especially with the nice weather recently.

“It wasn’t long before I started scanning a few extra Beat Boxes on my runs, so it has been a great way for me personally to get myself back into running as my weekly miles had dropped recently. When running was getting a bit too much, Becky and Flo were there to keep me company making the most of the weather and we have enjoyed meeting and chatting to such a diverse range of people going about their day and joining in the challenge.

“It’s clear to see that it has had a similar effect on a lot of people encouraging them to get a bit of exercise in. The challenge has also shown us parts of Burnley we have never been to before so it will likely give me some new routes to run and trails to explore on dog walks with the family.”

Scorching

When Dan realised that he was at the top of the individual points leaderboard after week one, he didn’t want to let go of the lead.

He added: “I had a discussion with my running buddy Matt about the idea of us visiting every Beat Box in a single activity. Knowing that he owed me a couple of running support favours and his unwillingness to back down, the challenge was a go.

“The first job was to painstakingly plot a route for us to run that visited every Beat Box with minimal wasted distance; a logistical nightmare. Once that was done, the 44mile/71 km run in the scorching Burnley heat was set.

“We Beat the Street and also just about beat the heat in around eight hours 11 minutes finishing the route at The Ram Inn for a well-deserved treat. When Beat the Street returns to Burnley, please don’t challenge us to repeat the ‘all in one’ because we won’t be able to refuse.”

Paul Foster, deputy chief executive at Burnley Leisure and Culture, said: “It’s been an amazing six weeks, as we’ve watched Burnley residents rise to the challenge of Beat the Street once again. Now we’re looking forward to the next phase of the project where we’ll work with local stakeholders and community groups to continue to encourage people to be physically activity every day.”

Vicki Birch, participation health and wellbeing project manager at Canal and River Trust, said: “It’s been an enjoyable six weeks, and it’s been wonderful to see lots of people discovering the best of Burnley’s blue spaces and waterways over the past six weeks.”

Beat the Street Burnley has been brought to you through a local partnership including Together an Active Future, Burnley Borough Council, NHS Primary Care Networks, Canal and River Trust, and other partners. It is supported by the National Lottery via Sport England and is being delivered by Intelligent Health.

Tree planting

Players will now receive a post-game survey to measure its impact and there is a celebration event for participants on Saturday, July 1st from 11am to 3pm at Burnley Fire Station. For every 2,000 points clocked up during the game, one tree will be planted in the town – a tree-planting and wildflower project will begin later this year.

Beat the Street was created by GP Dr William Bird to encourage people to explore their local areas and to make exercise fun, and the game has been played by more than 1.6m people in more than 120 locations in the UK.

Beat the Street not only has a significant impact on increasing low levels of physical activity amongst adults and children, but also helps reduce congestion, improves air quality, and helps families spend time in green spaces together.