People of all ages are invited to ditch the car and get active as Beat the Street East Kilbride gets underway again in the town and runs until Wednesday 26 October.

Beat the Street is a free, interactive game that encourages people of all ages to incorporate physical activity into their daily lives by rewarding teams with points and prizes the further they walk, cycle and roll. It was previously played in the town in early 2020 when 12,066 signed up to take part and walked, cycled and wheeled more than 124,000 miles.

Once again, there are prizes for the teams that travel the furthest with One4All gift cards vouchers for the winners plus the opportunity for the community to walk their way to a donation of £500 to Kilbryde Hospice. There is a total points leaderboard and an average leaderboard plus community leaderboards, so opportunities for teams of all sizes to win.

Beat the Street was devised by GP Dr William Bird to make exercise and physical activity fun by introducing a competitive game element and has been played in towns and cities from the north of Scotland to Eastbourne on the south coast.

Beeping and flashing sensors called Beat Boxes will be placed on lampposts around the area for the duration of the six-week game. Primary school pupils will be provided with a player pack containing a map and a card for the child and an accompanying adult. The wider community can pick up a contactless card from a distribution point listed at www.beatthestreet.me

Players then travel between the contactless Beat Boxes scoring points with their cards as they go. The further players travel, the more points they score for their community or school team. Each week is themed with different activities to help participants get the most out of their Beat the Street experience.

Councillor Robert Brown, the chair of the council’s Community and Enterprise Resources Committee, said: “We are delighted to bring this innovative and compelling game to East Kilbride again and we can’t wait to see how far everyone is able to walk, run, cycle and scoot during the game.

"The wider purpose though is to encourage both young people, their parents and the wider community to leave the car behind if they can. The children really get into the spirit of it -  I was dragged round all the sensors in the area by my granddaughter when it came to Rutherglen.”

More information will be available at www.beatthestreet.me/eastkilbride and on social media @BTSEastKilbride