An interactive game which turns whole communities into a giant activity competition is set to launch across Pendle this autumn.

Beat the Street was created to encourage people to explore their local areas and make exercise fun.

The game has been played by almost two million people in 168 locations across the country, including in Burnley in the last three years.

During the last game in Burnley, 12,300 people signed up and walked, cycled, and wheeled their way to a total of more than 155,000 active travel miles.

Beat the Street Pendle takes place for six weeks from Wednesday, September 18 to Wednesday, October 30.

The game has been commissioned by the Pendle Leisure Trust and is funded by the Canal & Rivers Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB, Pendle West Primary Care Network, Lancashire County Council, Pendle Council, Active Lancashire, and the National Lottery via Sport England. It is being delivered by Intelligent Health.

The game is free to take part in and is open to anyone in the community of any age or ability. The aim is to encourage the community as a whole to move more and make small lifestyle changes, such as walking or cycling to school or work every day.

As well as making a significant impact on increasing low levels of physical activity amongst adults and children, the game also helps reduce congestion, improves air quality, and helps families spend time in green spaces together.

Nearer to the start date, participating primary schools will provide a card and map to children, with a card for an adult to accompany them. The wider community can pick up a free card from one of the distribution points listed on the Beat the Street Pendle website which will go live prior to launch.

Alternatively, players aged over 13 can download the free Beat the Street app to play the game with their phone.

Players can join a school, community, workplace team and there are prizes for the teams that travel the furthest with vouchers for books and sports equipment on offer. With an individual leaderboard, lucky ‘spot’ prizes just for taking part, and the opportunity to help selected local charities win cash prizes, there’s something for everyone. For schools and community teams, there is a total points leaderboard and an average leaderboard, so opportunities for teams of all sizes to win prizes.

Once the game is underway, players find their nearest “Beat Box” which will appear on lampposts around the borough. There will be more than 110 of these sensors that record each players’ point tally. These sensors are contactless so that you don’t need to touch them – simply hover your card over the Beat Box and it will beep and flash to record your points. 

Visit two Beat Boxes within an hour and collect 10 points for each Beat Box, then keep going.

Alison Goode, CEO of Pendle Leisure Trust, said: “We cannot wait to bring Beat the Street to Pendle! It’s a fantastic, gripping game that really helps achieve positive results on getting people active, reducing congestion and improving community cohesion.  It’s free to sign up, so please give it a go and have a go at walking, cycling or other forms of active travel. Let’s see if we can go further than Beat the Street Burnley players!”

To find out more information visit www.beatthestreet.me/pendle.