Please click on the underlined text to read a PDF document outlining Walk England's Top 10 Initiatives: The Top 10 Initiatives for Government to Fund

Walk England has been established to work in partnership and help create options that give people the opportunity to walk, to walk more often, to walk to more places, and to feel safe while doing so.

Walk England promotes walking as a way to be healthy, travel and relax - by bringing together people who want to walk more, with those health, transport, environment, urban realm, education and sports and recreation professionals responsible for supporting their choice.

Walk England has coordinated a panel of experts to propose ten new initiatives that could, with Government funding, significantly reverse the decline in the number of people choosing to walk for every day journeys of less than one mile. The health benefits associated with a more active population and the environmental benefits of modal shift associated with more people walking are part of the solution to some of the challenges we face such as climate change and obesity. Over 3 years the panel believe, with Government support, the investment could deliver a significant national return in the amount of people choosing to walk England.


Top Ten New National Initiatives to support more walking in England:

1. Organise an annual national conference to instigate a renaissance in walking as a transport choice and a beneficial form of physical activity.
   
   
2. Coordinate a series of inspirational elected member briefings to raise the local political profile and extend the strategic vision for more walking.
   
   
3. Implement a qualitative and quantitative measuring methodology to record who walks, where they walk and why they walk in England, leading to an affordable monitoring framework and evidence base.
   
   
4. Organise a programme of motivational public meetings to identify representative local community voices for people who walk in England and a practical list of issues and investment priorities.
   
   
5. Target, through a promotional campaign, people who choose not to walk for short journeys and those who don’t do enough physical activity to benefit their health.
   
   
6. Facilitate a sequence of relevant master class events for professionals to share expertise, develop partnerships and increase the measurable returns on money being spent to encourage more local walking.
   
   
7. Launch a ground miles scheme for businesses to reward their employees who choose to walk to work and while on business.
   
   
8. Build a network of walking ambassadors within the NHS and local authorities and support teams of trained volunteers to take people walking to improve their health.
   
   
9. Invest in a ‘streets of gold’ programme targeting area improvements to places where people want to walk more but don’t feel safe or that they have the opportunity.
   
   
10. Develop flagship walking routes in every community by 2012.