Nominate your neighbourhood for best of the country’s walking routes

The Ramblers is calling on people in the North East to nominate their area for Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood Award.
Castle Vale Park in Berwick.Castle Vale Park in Berwick.
Castle Vale Park in Berwick.

The walking charity is searching for the places that put pedestrians first and lead the way in enabling residents to walk every day for transport or leisure.

Now in its second year, Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood Award celebrates local authorities, developers, individuals and communities that have made positive changes to help make neighbourhoods more walkable.

Stroll in Morpeths Bluebell Woods. Picture Jane ColtmanStroll in Morpeths Bluebell Woods. Picture Jane Coltman
Stroll in Morpeths Bluebell Woods. Picture Jane Coltman
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It can range from making routes and public spaces greener to building mixed-use developments that encourage active travel, or improving the way local streets connect people to the places they want to go.

Vanessa Griffiths, Ramblers Chief Executive, said: “We have a vision of a country designed for walking in the open countryside and close to where we all live and work.

“By making it easy for people to walk their everyday local journeys, we help them live more active, healthier lives. Not only that, we help tackle some of society’s biggest problems, including growing levels of obesity, social isolation, congestion and air pollution.

“Sadly, for many of us the areas we live in have been designed to favour cars, rather than people, making walking unsafe or unpleasant.

View of Rothbury
Picture by Jane ColtmanView of Rothbury
Picture by Jane Coltman
View of Rothbury Picture by Jane Coltman
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“With this award, we want to highlight the places and people already doing a great job to make walking easier in their local neighbourhoods.

“We also want to encourage others to think about the small changes they could make to improve the walkability of their neighbourhoods and health and wellbeing of their residents, while creating more vibrant communities.

The North East was represented among last year’s finalists when the judges selected the Town Moor in Newcastle for offering something for the whole community.

A neighbourhood is any district, community or area where people live and work – it could be the heart of a big city or a small village.

To nominate your neighbourhood visit www.ramblers.org.uk/nominate

The deadline for nominations is March 3.