A scheme designed to help people become more active has been a huge success.
The Active Partnership hoped to get 2,000 people taking more exercise over a 12-month period.
But nearly 4,000 people – twice the original target – have signed up and committed to being physically active three times a week.
The Active Partnership includes South Gloucestershire Council, South Gloucestershire Leisure Trust, Sure Start and a number of volunteer clubs and societies.
The partnership aims to encourage South Gloucestershire residents to work towards ‘an active mind in an active body’, by bringing together leisure and cultural services.
Residents are urged to get involved in any kind of physical activity which raises the heart rate above resting level – so walking, gardening and informal play count as well as more traditional sports and fitness activities.
Councillor Heather Goddard, South Gloucestershire Council’s executive member for communities, said: “At the start of this programme 4,000 people told us they were not active enough. Now they are physically active three times a week.
“It’s a great achievement for everyone involved and we are thrilled that this scheme has been such a success.”
The scheme has encouraged participants to use South Gloucestershire’s leisure centres, go on health-boosting walks with the Walking the Way to Health scheme or be referred by medical professionals for ‘exercise on prescription’.
Others have taken part in activities at school clubs, Brownies, Beavers and Scouts, at Sure Start Centres and at retirement homes.
For more information on the Active Partnership visit www.southglos.gov.uk/A4L or call South Gloucestershire Council on 01454 868006.
The work of the partnership is closely linked to the council’s wider investment in sports and leisure facilities, which has included new changing rooms at Emersons Green, a planned new sports pavilion at Pomphrey Hill, refurbishment of Yate Leisure Centre, planned refurbishment of Kingswood Leisure Centre, and a range of new school sports halls across the district which will available for public use out of school hours.
Source: South Gloucestershire Council
