Walk the Talk – Sheepen Road
Working with some of our Travel Plan Club members in Sheepen Road we’ve produced a new lunchtime walking map, in the spirit of 2017’s Walk the Talk in North Colchester Business Park.
Walkers from Colchester Institute, Colchester Borough Counil and Aston Lark have mapped out three walks. They all start in Sheepen Rd and each take about 30 minutes to complete, meaning one lunchtime walk a day meets your recommended activity goal for the week!
Download a PDF of the maps to print out, or follow it on your phone.
May 2018 – Walking Month
May is national walking month so a great time to focus on promoting walking at your workplace!
Here are a few ideas for joining in in walking related activities and promotions.
Jane’s Walk Colchester returns for its 8th year!
Friday 4th to Monday 7th May
On May Bank Holiday weekend, Jane’s Walk Colchester returns for its 8th year – local walks led by local people on local themes; all given free, in celebration of the late urbanist and activist Jane Jacobs (1916-2006). It’s a great weekend for staying in town!
Find out more and download the schedule of walks from the Walk Colchester website
#TRY20WITHUS
Living Streets’ month-long celebration of walking takes place throughout May!
During May we want to see as many people as possible give walking everyday journeys a go. Living Streets offer 20 top tips to incorporate more walking into your day plus lots of interesting facts and figures to keep you motivated.
Why not organise some lunchtime walks with colleagues or walking meetings?
Colchester Town Centre walking quiz
If you are based near the town centre use the quiz questions to organise some lunch time walks or set your colleagues a daily walking challenge!
Walk the Talk at North Colchester Business Parks
If you work on the business park or Severalls, help us promote Walk the Talk, 12 local walks of differing lengths, that give you information about how much time it will take, how many calories it will burn and number of steps. So you might want try Love Your Heart, or the Crescent Loop, do the Tesco Hop or go for a longer Highwoods Country Ramble. However much time you have available there will be a walk to suit you.
Rate your walk
Tell Living Streets about your everyday walk and help create #walkingcities across the uk. Whether it’s a walk you do every day, or a stroll you take while having a crack at one of Living Street’s fun #Try20 tips – tell them about it and they can build a picture of the state of our Walking Nation.
Walk to School Week is 21-25 May
If you have got kids, focus on 21 – 25 May and incorporate walking into your journey to school, whether all the way or park away from school and stride the rest of the way in. Take Living Street’s pledge, get top tips, enter their prize draw – and be part of the best walk in the best week of the year.
Find out more about Walk to School week
Happy Shoes day fundraiser
On Tuesday, 22 May 2018 thousands of children and grown-ups around the country will be wearing their happy shoes.
Why? They all want the right to walk to school safely, with fewer traffic jams and less toxic fumes in the air. They will be taking part in Living Street’s event; Happy Shoesday which encourages more children to walk to school and raises vital funds for their work.
15 June – National Clean Air Day
The first ever National Clean Air Day falls on Wednesday 15th June.
Air quality has been in the media a lot recently as the evidence of the health impacts of air pollution, particularly from motorised vehicles is now very clear, with old people, unborn babies, children and those suffering from lung and heart problems the most vulnerable.
In Colchester alone 143 early deaths every year are attributable to air pollution.
As a town with an air quality problem in specific areas including the town centre (see more about Colchester’s air quality problem and the Air Quality Management Areas), we are very keen to support this initiative and the Clean Air Day organisers have provided heaps of free resources to help us.
Everyone who drives has a responsibility to contribute to reducing air pollution and there are small actions everyone can take that can contribute to making a big difference.
Please use the day to raise awareness of the causes and health impacts of air pollution and ask your colleagues to pledge to make a change to their travel behaviour on the 15th June.
With just one hour of your time, you could:
- Forward the social media message and information to your communications team and ask them to promote the day internally and externally including signing up to the Thunderclap
National Clean Air Day Social media resources
- Put the posters below up around your workplace
Fact2 – Pollution damages our hearts
Fact3 – How to avoid worst air pollution
Poster – Leave the car at home
- Share these leaflets with your colleagues
- Encourage your colleagues to pledge online to make a change on the 15th June at www.cleanairday.org.uk/pledge
There are 4 pledges to choose from
Leave my car at home
Turn off my engine whenever I can
Walk my children to school
Share tips on how to cut pollution with others.
- Promote AirTEXT a free alert service highlighting high pollution level days in Colchester so people with heart and lung conditions can take action if needed. AirTEXT alert service
If you can do a bit more?
There are lots of other ideas and resources available to help you draft a message from your chief executive or managing director, to hold an event, or talk to people about turning off their engines. Look at the resources below for further information.
There are other resource packs for schools and healthcare providers packed with ideas, posters, templates and key messages to share.
Go to the Clean Air Day website for more information.
Walk the Talk in North Colchester Business Park
Walk the Talk, 12 local walks of differing lengths is now available to businesses working on the North Colchester Business Parks.
Each walk has its own name and includes details of its approximate length, number of steps, calories burned and time it will take.
So you might want try Love Your Heart, or the Crescent Loop, do the Tesco Hop or go for a longer Highwoods Country Ramble.
Whether you have twelve or fifty minutes to spare there is a walk for you. Get out for a breath of fresh air at lunchtime or take your team out for a walk to come up with some inspirational blue sky thinking while on the move.
Download the Walk The Talk poster.
Colchester Walking Challenge 5-19th May 2017
In celebration of Living Street’s National Walking Month, the Colchester Travel Plan Club in partnership with Active Essex’s Workplace Challenge are launching a Walking Challenge for Colchester businesses and organisations!
Walking is a great way for your employees to get active and much easier than most activity to build into a daily routine. Introducing some walking during the day boosts productivity as well, so a lunch time walk, walking to a meeting or even holding a walking meeting can all have business benefits.
Our challenge to you is to see how many employees you can encourage to walk the recommended 150 minutes a week during the Walking Challenge?
We will be holding prize draws for those that achieve at least 150 minutes of walking each week, we will also reward the most Active Travellers, and the department that walks the most.
But we also want to pit organisation against organisation and see what Colchester company tops the leader board as walking the most!
Throughout the challenge you will be able to see where your organisation is placed on the leader board and also within your organisation the top departments taking part (if applicable) and most active individuals.
To sign up to the Walking Challenge visit the Active Essex Workplace Challenge website
To encourage your staff to take part, why not offer some lunchtime walks, cancel some booked meeting rooms and hold the meeting while walking, promote Jane’s Walk a whole weekend of walks in Colchester between the 5 – 7th May , (more on the Jane’s Walk facebook page ) and check out Living Streets handy hints and tips.
#Try20 – walk during May
This year the whole of May is walking month, and Living Streets the national charity that promotes walking is encouraging everyone to pledge to walk for 20 minutes a day through their #Try20 campaign.
We all know how good walking is for us and walking 20 minutes a day sets us well on the way to the 150 minutes a week of activity recommended to stay in good health
If you pledge with Living Streets, you will receive daily tips to help you walk more plus be entered into a free prize draw to win a £50 shopping voucher.
Here is a poster #Try20 A4 poster and a flyer #Try20 A5 flyer you can download to help promote #Try20.
May is a good month for walking locally – check out the ideas below:
Downloadable poster calendar of May’s walks and top tips: May walking month calendar of walks which includes the walks below:
6 May – ‘Fixing the Link’ lunchtime walk as part of Jane’s Walk – find out about the background and inspiration for the signing of the route between the Station and Town Centre
6-8 May
Jane’s Walk – a weekend of free fascinating themed walks led by local people exploring the local area and its history and environment in celebration of the life and work of renowned urban planner Jane Jacobs.
Find out more from the www.Janeswalk.org website. Download the poster opposite from the Walk Colchester website
Here is a downloadable Jane’s Walk flyer janeswalk2016_flyersingle
1 and 8 May – Pedlars Wood between Frinton and Walton
This beautiful private nature reserve is open for woodland walks two Saturdays in May between 10 and 5pm. Donations will be collected by bucket at the entrance.
For location details visit Visit Colchester or call 01255 850664
13 & 27 May Friday health walk and 8 & 22 May Sunday strolls in High Woods country park: Meet at the Visitor Centre at 11 am.
Friday health walks are a short circular walks of 20 to 30 minutes. Sunday strolls last up to 1 1/2 hours, Free tea or coffee available afterwards. For more information go to Colchester Borough Council’s Walking for Health webpage or contact the Centre on 01206 853588 or email countryside@colchester.gov.uk.
14 May – CBC staff walk
CBC’s professional support unit team organise a monthly walk with colleagues, but anyone is welcome to join them! They have a leisurely walk in High Woods country park then a stop for a cuppa or ice cream at the visitor centre. Meet 10:30 at the visitor centre. For more information contact michelle.lay-flurrie@colchester.gov.uk
Wellbeing walks, Work out walks, Taster sessions and Nordic Walking at High Woods country park, Castle Park and Brightlingsea
You need to book in advance and there is a fee. For full details, calendar and costs visit nordicwalkingnortheastessex.co.uk/activities
19 May – Firechoir
Firechoir meet every month at High Woods Country Park and walk together to the fire site to light a fire, sing and share a cup of tea when the kettle is hot! For more details visit www.firechoir.org.uk
Road Safety Week
This week is Road Safety Week and ‘Drive Less, Live More’ is the theme. Here are some facts that charity Brake, organisers of Road Safety Week are sharing to support Drive Less, Live More…
- Two thirds (63%) of trips are made by car, including four in 10 (40%) trips of less than two miles.
- Average walking trips per person have decreased by 27% since 1995.
- A quarter of adults in England are obese and the cost to the NHS of people being overweight is estimated at £4.2 billion a year.
- Incorporating activity like walking and cycling into everyday life is effective for losing weight.
- In 2013 there were 1,770 people killed and 22,377 people seriously injured on UK roads. The vast majority of casualties are attributable to driver error.
- Nearly half of households in England could be struggling with the costs of car ownership.
- On average a family can save £642 a year by swapping a car-based school run for walking or cycling.
- 22% of UK greenhouse gas emissions come from road transport.
- Air pollution is estimated to cause 24,000 deaths a year in the UK, half attributable to road transport.
- The number of cars is set to increase by 43% by 2035 and traffic delays by 50%
You can take part and promote Road Safety Week by:
- Tweeting about Road Safety Week, using #RoadSafetyWeek and #drivelesslivemore.
- Asking your MP to sign Early Day Motion 683 supporting the Week.
- Using the posters, banners, guides and factsheet in their action pack to publicise your activities.
- Share their interactive resource on driving less – www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk/drivelessinteractive.
- Go to www.brake.org.uk/pledge to make Brake’s Pledge and find out how to support Brake.
- Fundraise or donate to support Brake’s campaigns for safer streets and support work for bereaved and injured road crash victims.
Find out more from www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk
CBC walk 3,230 miles for Walk to Work Week
Twenty teams took part in this year’s Walking Challenge at Colchester Borough Council. Between the 11 and 15 May, 100 members of staff used pedometers to count their daily steps. Prizes for the top walking team, top walker and a free prize draw for everyone walking over 10,000 steps on any one day were up for grabs. Competition was fierce, both across the teams and within! The winners were announced over coffee and cakes.
‘The Regenerators’ were the top walking team racking up a massive 492,530 steps. A close second were the ‘Ant Hill Mob’ amassing a fantastic 450,685 steps.
CBC’s Top Walker was Marie Rutherford who walked a massive 166,979 steps throughout the week and Terry Cooper who walked a fantastic 131,148 steps.
Out of the 100 participants, the majority walked at least 10,000 steps on one of the days, with a sizable number walking over 10,000 steps on all five days. Angela Fowler won the free prize draw.
Over the course of the challenge a massive 6,822,705 steps were walked covering a total distance of 3,230 miles.
Michelle Lay-Flurrie, CBC’s CTPC rep said ‘ We have had an overwhelming response to the walking challenge this year, our best yet in terms of numbers of staff taking part. Everyone has had a great time and we are really impressed with the number of steps the teams have walked. We always get good feedback after the challenge with staff telling us how much fun it has been and how healthy they are feeling! We hope it leads to more walking generally particularly for the journey to work’
CBC held the Walking Challenge as part of National Walk to Work week.
Bee Green!
Colchester Institute hosted it’s second Bee Green event yesterday to highlight the importance of sustainability to it’s students, staff and the public. As well as having Colchester Bee Keeping Association with them for the day highlighting the vital contribution bees make to sustainable agriculture and the environment, there was also the opportunity to take part in lots of activities.
Free bike repairs, local stalls, a farmers market, a boot camp, electric cars, walking tours, free NHS checks, fabulous food cooked by Colchester Institute’s chefs were just some of the many other attractions.
Rhonda, Colchester Institute’s CTPC rep led a lunchtime walk around the town, including a picnic on route with free water and sandwiches. Eight members of staff took part. Rhonda said ‘I am really pleased with how the walk went and I hope to make it a more regular activity’
The Colchester Institute’s bike user group offered Dr Bike health checks, checking around 20 bikes over the course of the day. Students and staff could also test their stamina, to see how far they could cycle in three minutes on a stationary bike!
Pulp Friction was there, getting many students and staff back on a bike for a chance to pedal themselves a free smoothie!
The weather held out, but at 2:30 a sudden hail storm descended with pebble sized ice as a dramatic grand finale to a good day!
