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Exercise game returns to town where it launched

BBC A woman with long blonde hair and wearing a black waterproof coat and a green lanyard, standing next to a lamppost with a grey boxed attached to it. There's a brick wall behind her. She appears to have been photographed mid-sentence and is gesturing with her hands.BBC
Jenny Cottrell said the game would help people discover their community

A physical activity game has returned to the town where it was founded for six weeks.

First launched in Reading, Berkshire, Beat The Street gives people the opportunity to earn points and win prizes as they walk and cycle around their area.

It returned to the south and east of the town on Wednesday and will run until 6 November.

Jenny Cottrell, head of programmes at Intelligent Health, said the game would "get people out and about discovering their local community".

It is also designed to increase physical activity among adults and children, reduce congestion, and improve air quality.

The hand of an unidentifiable person pressing a blue and green credit card-sized card to a grey box attached to a lamppost with a brick wall behind it.
Players can use a physical card or their phone to log where they go

The game was founded by Dr William Bird MBE 10 years ago.

It took place several times in Reading before reaching more than 168 locations in the UK, and 1.9 million players.

Players can use either their phone or a physical card to tap in to boxes on lampposts around the borough in return for points.

Players can join school, community and workplace teams, with prizes for the teams that travel the furthest.

A woman with shoulder length brown hair wearing a red blouse, a black blazer and a rainbow lanyard. The inside of a hall with a small crowd of people sitting on chairs can be seen behind her.
The game can improve community spirit as well as physical health, Ruth McEwan said

Ruth McEwan, lead councillor for public health and education at Reading Borough Council, said the hope was the game would act as a "springboard" for people getting more active.

"Beat the Street is a fun way of encouraging people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to get active and to explore the town on foot," she said.

But she said there were other benefits, including serving "as a catalyst for bolstering community spirit".

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