Additional Walk Derbyshire funding will help get the county moving

Walking is one of the best ways to get some extra physical activity into your daily routine and new funding aims to make it easier for Derbyshire to get moving.

Derbyshire County Council has approved £185,000 of additional funding for Walk Derbyshire.

This will go towards additional workforce development and developing the Walk Derbyshire website and digital resources on offer to residents.

Walk Derbyshire sits within Active Derbyshire – one of 44 Active Partnerships covering England. It aims to promote the benefits of walking as well as encourage everyone to move more. 

Derbyshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Communities, Councillor Carol Hart said: “Walking is one of the easiest, and cheapest, ways of getting a little more exercise into our day.  This additional funding will help ensure that everyone has the chance to walk more, no matter where they live.”

Funding will secure a new, three-year, programme support officer post to support workforce development as well as ensure that a countywide training programme is developed and delivered through a wider range of partners.

The funding will also go towards developing the Walk Derbyshire website and other digital resources such as live route reporting and other apps.

Active Derbyshire released their physical activity strategy ‘Making our Move’ in October 2021.

This showed that most physical activity takes place outdoors – within 20 minutes of people’s homes – and that most people walk more than they do any other type of activity whether to keep fit, for leisure or for travel.

Initial Derbyshire County Council funding was approved in July 2021, to fund the Walk Derbyshire programme including approval to fund four Active Neighbourhood pilots

Following this initial approval, it was recognised that there is an opportunity to further develop and improve the Walk Derbyshire programme. As a result, the additional funding has now been approved.  Find out more about Walk Derbyshire online here: www.walkderbyshire.org.uk