EAST Renfrewshire residents clocked up the miles as they took part in an interactive game that aimed to boost health and wellbeing.

‘Beat the Street’ saw players being rewarded with points and prizes for exploring their town or village on foot or by bicycle.

A total of 7,526 people walked, ran, cycled, rolled and wheeled 69,000 miles across Barrhead, Neilston, Giffnock, Thornliebank, Clarkston, Busby, Eaglesham and Waterfoot, a new report has shown.

The innovative game was set to take place from February 19 to April 1 this year.
But due to the coronavirus, it had to be halted on March 26.

Councillor Tony Buchanan, Leader of East Renfrewshire Council, said: “Beat the Street has not only encouraged the local community to get more active, but has had a positive impact on getting families to spend time together exploring green spaces, plus helped people consider active travel rather than jumping in the car.

“We’re delighted at the findings in this report and to see the impact of Beat the Street, despite the outbreak of coronavirus.

“We heard lots of lovely stories of the game’s impact, so it’s useful to have these findings confirmed in this data.”

Beeping and flashing sensors called Beat Boxes were placed on lamp-posts around East Renfrewshire.

Participants used cards and fobs to track their journey and earn points for themselves and their team.

Following the end of the initiative, there was an eight per cent decrease in adults reporting being inactive and a 14 per cent increase in adults achieving 150 or more minutes of activity per week.

There was also an 11 per cent increase in users being frequently active.

The game was being delivered by Intelligent Health on behalf of East Renfrewshire Council, with support from Paths for All’s Smarter Choices, Smarter Places programme.