PENDLE'S Healthy Communities project has started a range of initiatives to encourage people to eat more healthily and take exercise.

New measures for this year include the recent installation of gym equipment at the Silverman Hall, in Nelson, a Grow and Sow project for children to grow organic fruit and vegetables on allotments and walks and new facilities to encourage more people to use canals.

The project, initially funded by the Pendle Leisure Trust, Pendle Partnership, Sure Start Bradley and Whitefield and the Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Primary Care Trust, aims to tackle health problems caused by poverty and social exclusion. It was set up three years ago,

Activities provided include exercise consultations, community exercise sessions, health awareness courses, dietary advice, smoking cessation services, organic gardening, first aid, drug awareness and accident prevention.

Many of the ideas are aimed at attracting groups who do not usually exercise, and sessions aimed specifically at Asian women now attract about 400 participants every week.

Nelson GP Dr Ikram Malik MBE said: "Preventative health measures have the biggest impact on improving public health.

"The benefits to communities of the work that the project is doing will last a lifetime."