Winners of the Active Belfast Challenge 2016 at an event at Ormeau Baths, Belfast.
Mary Black from PHA with Conservation Volunteers winners - for second year in a row - and Claire McLernon, Sustrans
Northern Ireland Association for Mental Health winners of Active Belfast Challenge
Belfast City Council winners in large workplace category of Active Belfast Challenge
Winners from White Ink Architects, Belfast
Mary Black from the PHA presenting RQIA with their winning plaque for Active Belfast Challenge
AECOM winners of the Active Belfast Challenge
Staff from Belfast Health and Social Care Trust were commended in the Active Belfast Challenge
Over 50 workplaces from the private, public and voluntary sector recently went head to head in Sustrans’ Active Belfast Challenge to encourage Belfast workers to travel actively. Fresh from the July holidays, an awards ceremony was hosted by the Public Health Agency (PHA) to celebrate the success of the winning workplaces who contributed to almost 30,000 active and sustainable journeys during the Challenge in May, burning almost 5 million calories.
With six workplace size categories, the largest workplace leader-board was topped by Belfast City Council whose staff burned a total of 600,000 calories, travelling a distance of 27,137 active miles. In close contention was Belfast Health and Social Care Trust who are making waves in the world of Active Travel in Belfast, having recently installed Belfast Bikes at some of their sites.
The Active Belfast Challenge is just one part of a wider Public Health Agency (PHA) funded project called Leading the Way with Active Travel, which is engaging with staff in some of Belfast’s largest workplaces to encourage and facilitate active travel.
The winners were:
- Belfast City Council
- AECOM
- The Conservation Volunteers
- NIAMH (Northern Ireland Association for Mental Health)
- RQIA (Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority)
- White Ink Architects
More than half of women in Northern Ireland and 40% of men do not take the level of exercise recommended by the Chief Medical Officer of 150 minutes per week (2013/14 NI Health Survey).
Mary Black, Assistant Director of Health and Social Wellbeing Improvement at the PHA said: “The Active Belfast Challenge has been important in motivating people to get physically active. We are all very busy people and it is often difficult to find time to get active and the challenge has shown that the best thing you can do is to build activity into your life, which ultimately will be of benefit to your overall health and wellbeing. This scheme really does ‘Lead the Way’ to help people incorporate physical activity into their daily lives having a positive impact not just in the workplace but through to our families."
Sustrans Active Travel Officer, Claire McLernon said: “The Challenge saw participation numbers double from last year. I think this reflects increasing demand for alternative modes of travel to the car, particularly in our cities and towns. More people realise that walking, cycling, and using public transport is a simple, time-efficient, and cost-effective way to incorporate more physical activity into our everyday lives”.