Spatial Planning Division
Lombard Street
West Bromwich
West Midlands
B70 8RU

Tel: 0121 569 4055
Fax: 0121 569 4053
Email: transport@sandwell.gov.uk

Exercising outdoors also has many benefits, such as experiencing the natural environment. Walking in Sandwell: The Strategy was introduced in 2001, and provides guidelines for pedestrians, which is especially important for local residents due to the below average level of car ownership in the Borough.

A typical person can walk a mile in 15 minutes, so a two-mile walk can be achieved within 30 minutes, which is the recommended amount of exercise the average adult should take each day. This could be achieved walking to and from work, on the school run, or to the local shops. The promotion of walking is especially important, as it is accessible to everyone. Increasing walking trips can improve air quality by reducing traffic congestion, and its damaging effects to human health and the environment.

Fitter for Walking project

The Fitter for walking project aims to get people walking more as part of their daily routine and in order to do this we need our streets to feel safe, look attractive, and be looked after with people in mind.

Often it's simple things that can make a huge difference to how we view our streets - whether clearing up a particularly useful walking route, starting up street parties, or running campaigns to get parents walking the school run.

The project is currently working with local residents and communities to improve the walking routes in a number of neighbourhoods in Sandwell, these include Tipton, West Bromwich and Bearwood.

Living Streets are working in partnership with Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council and Sandwell Primary Care Trust to improve the streets and encourage residents to walk more for short jouneys.

Living Streets

Living Streets is the national charity that stands up for pedestrians and that is creator of the Fitter for Walking project.

They work to create safe, attractive and enjoyable streets, where people want to walk.

In 2007, Living Streets were part of a successful Active Travel Consortium that was awarded £20 million by the Big Lottery Fund to run projects to get people across England physically active in their daily lives. One of these projects is the Fitter for Walking project.

Contact

Nobody knows your local area better than you and if you have an idea of how to improve your streets, no matter how big or small, please contact:

Hema Kasi-Patel
Fitter For Walking Project (West Midlands)
Regional Coordinator
Tel: 07595781875
Email: hema.kasi-patel@livingstreets.org.uk