Sport England has awarded Calderdale Council’s Active Calderdale programme £2.65 million to help encourage people in the borough to become more active, more often.
Cabinet will be asked to accept the grant as part of Calderdale’s Sport England local delivery pilot when it meets on Monday 10 February 2020.
In 2017 Sport England chose Calderdale as one of 12 local delivery pilot areas in England.
Each area is responsible for building healthier, more active communities across the country, by understanding and then breaking down the barriers that stop people getting active, such as poor transport, safety, cost and confidence.
The Council, together with partners, developed and launched Active Calderdale, which aims to tackle local inequalities in physical activity, with the ambition to become the most active borough in the North by 2024.
After months of extensive research, the Council submitted an application for a Pathfinder grant. Sport England has now announced the Council has been successful, being awarded a grant of £2.65 million.
The funding will be used to test ways in which physical activity can be embedded across the borough, including through health and social care, e.g. hospitals and GP surgeries; within the workplace; parks and open spaces and voluntary and community organisations.
Initially the majority of the work will be undertaken in Park and North Halifax, however if successful, it will be rolled out across Calderdale.
Calderdale Council’s Cabinet Member for Public Health and Cohesion, Cllr Faisal Shoukat said:
“Active Calderdale is already changing lives, and I’m delighted that we have received this further funding from Sport England. We all know the benefits to our physical and mental health of being more active, but for some there are barriers which stop them being as active as they’d like to be. Every penny of this grant has been allocated to projects which help people to overcome these.
“It’s not about going to the gym or running a marathon, which can be quite daunting. It’s just about encouraging people to move more, more often, whether that’s walking the dog, taking the kids to school, carrying heavy shopping or taking the stairs.
“If we can make it easier for people to be active in the places where they live, work, or enjoy their leisure time then they’ll begin to feel the benefits of an active lifestyle.”
Initial results suggest that the Active Calderdale programme is already making an impact.
Sport England’s latest national Active Lives(external link) survey, which was published in October 2019, revealed the highest ever level of physical activity and the lowest ever level of inactivity in Calderdale.
The borough is now below the England average for levels of inactivity, and is one of the best performers in West Yorkshire, but there is still more work to be done. Around 23.4% are still inactive, doing less than 30 minutes of activity per week.
Moving more not only boosts our health and wellbeing; it also helps people connect with each other, improves air quality and protects our distinctive environment.
For more information about the work being done and how you can be more active, head to https://active.calderdale.gov.uk/ and follow #ActiveCdale on Twitter.
Active Calderdale supports the Vision2024 for Calderdale to be a place where people can reach their potential and live a larger life.
The year 2024 marks Calderdale’s 50th birthday. Where do we want to be by 2024? Join in the conversation on Twitter using #VisionCdale2024 and visit www.calderdale.gov.uk/vision
Cabinet will meet to discuss the award from 6pm on Monday 10 February 2020 at Halifax Town Hall.