Tuesday, 13th September saw the meeting of over 50 partners at an interactive, lively workshop at City Hall. Alongside Kersten England, Chief Executive of Bradford Council, Charles Dacres and James Mason opened their first public session as Co-Chairs of Active Bradford to progress the development of the district-wide strategy.

"We can achieve a lot when we come together" - James Mason, Co-Chair of Active Bradford

The workshop on Tuesday was a chance for leads in priority areas to analyse comments and feedback from those living and working in the district and begin to think about where action needs to happen for people in the Bradford district to be as physically active as they want to be. These priority areas include greenspace, built environment, active recreation, promotion and marketing.

Through a 6-week consultation period, members of the public engaged with the strategy development group both through an online platform and through face-to-face conversations. There were:

• 50+ attendees at a face-to-face workshop with clubs, groups and organisations
• 500+ conversations with people at HAF (Holiday Activity and Food) events
• 143 online survey responses
• 110 pins on an interactive map, showing where hotspots are that stop or help people to be active
• Multiple forum discussions

Combined with workshops involving senior leaders, insight from research and feedback from families through the work of JU:MP (Join Us: Move. Play, our Sport England local delivery pilot) the physical activity strategy group have a wealth of data for which to formulate action plans and will begin work straight away. A notable consensus was reflecting the whole systems approach involving whole communities - using the opinions, thoughts and ideas of young children right through to the older generation, intertwined with the various organisations involved in this journey.

Towards the end of the session all attendees were asked how they would pledge to support this work, and how they would personally enjoy moving more. All promises will be followed up in 30 days' time to see how individuals have progressed!

Next steps

The physical activity strategy group will meet to finalise a strategy and clarify how to make sure this work is implemented to have the best impact. Once plans are confirmed, these will be share with wider partners.