Paving the way - campaign toolkit

Our two priorities as part of this campaign are:

  1. Driving people to vote in our Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood Award through our voting page here: We’re aiming for 15,000 votes in total, and need as much support as possible to achieve this.
  2. Lobbying local councillors and councillor candidates in the run up to the local elections in May. We’re aiming for more than 2,500 people to lobby their candidates, asking them to sign up to our Charter for Walkable Towns and Cities.

Many of our towns and cities have been designed without people in mind, too often making places that are unsafe, unpleasant and difficult to navigate on foot. Since walking offers solutions to many of the nation’s most pressing challenges, including social isolation, obesity and air pollution, the Ramblers wants to see this change.

That’s why we’ve launched the very first Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood Award, to showcase towns and cities that have been designed or improved to prioritise people on foot and to urge more local authorities to think about how they could to improve walkability.

Voting is open from 26 February till 14 March on our website: the award period we will be developing lobbying actions for supporters in the run up to the local elections which take place across much of the country on 3 May.

Between now and 14 March we need your help to drive as many people to vote in our Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood Award as possible. It would be great if your group could:

  1. Share information on social media – from your personal accounts or group social media accounts. We’ll be sharing videos of our president Stuart Maconie talking about the campaign, as well as videos of the shortlisted neighbourhoods and urban walking in general – please re-tweet or share these. Follow our Facebook and Twitter pages to keep up to date.
  2. Post information on social media – We have provided suggested tweets and Facebook posts in the appendix.
  3. If you have a group website, share information on there - suggested text in appendix.
  4. Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper(s) about the campaign – A template letter can be found in the appendix.
  5. Take part in interviews with local media – We have provided an interview brief in the appendix.

Got any other ideas?

This guide is just a starter for 10 – but we’re sure there are lots of other ways you could help champion the importance of building walkable neighbourhoods and enthuse people in your area to support our work in making walking in towns and cities the easy choice. We encourage you to get creative – but don’t forget to let us know what you’re up to and share your great ideas with us so we can get more people involved in the campaign.

Any questions?

Please get in touch by emailing .

APPENDIX

  1. Template social media posts

We’ll be using the Ramblers GB social media accounts to talk about our campaign. Follow our lead and echo our messaging by using the suggested posts below. Not sure when to post them? Keep an eye on what we are doing nationally or email .

Hashtag: #UrbanWalkingAward - Downloadable graphics attached as zipfile.

TWEETS
What / Tweet
General tweet on award / .@RamblersGB have launched the first ever Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood Award, celebrating places that put urban walkers first. Find out if your area made the top 10 and vote for your favourite today! #RamblersUrbanAward
General tweet on award / .@RamblersGB has launched the first ever Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood award - vote now!
List of all the neighbourhoods / The neighbourhoods shortlisted for the #RamblersUrbanAward are… DG1 in Dumfries, Diglis, Hackney, Hastings Old Town, Kirkby Stephen, Newtown, Salford, Stocksbridge, Town Moor in Newcastle and Walthamstow. Which gets your vote?
Call for nominations for next year’s award / Think your neighbourhood should have been in the running for Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood award? We’ve opened nominations for next year’s #RamblersUrbanAward.
FACEBOOK POSTS
Facebook post / Suggested shareable image (see zip file attached)
The Ramblers have launched the first ever Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood award to celebrate places that put urban walkers first. Find out if your area made the top 10 and vote for your favourite today! /
The neighbourhoods shortlisted for Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood Award are… DG1 in Dumfries, Diglis, Hackney, Hastings Old Town, Kirkby Stephen, Newtown, Salford, Stocksbridge, Town Moor in Newcastle and Walthamstow. Which gets your vote? /
Think your neighbourhood should have been in the running for Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood award? We’ve opened nominations for next year’s award /
  1. Text for your group website or newsletter.

Paving the way

We want to make walking in towns and cities the easy option. The way you get to the shops, take the kids to school, go to work. Walking is great for our mental health and wellbeing, the best way to get more exercise every day and it’s good for the environment too. And you discover so much more from your doorstep when you’re on foot.

Many of our towns and cities have been designed without people in mind, too often making places that are unsafe, unpleasant and difficult to navigate on foot. Walking is a solution to reducing air pollution, social isolation and improves our mental and physical health.

That’s why we have launched the very first Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood Award, to showcase towns and cities that have been designed or improved to prioritise people on foot and to urge more local authorities to improve walking infrastructure, so that you can walk more easily where you live.

Vote on which neighbourhood you think should win until 14 March at

  1. Template letter to editor

Dear Sir/To the Editor (check your local paper to see how this should be addressed)

I am supporting the Ramblers call to build walkable neighbourhoods to make walking in towns and cities the easy choice. We know that getting more people walking is good for our mental and physical health and reduces social isolation and air pollution.

[add in any information about walking in your local area – any examples of safe, walker friendly streets, well-maintained parks and public spaces or any areas that could be improved]

To showcase areas that have been designed or improved to prioritise people on foot the Ramblers has launched Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood Award. View the shortlist and vote for your favourite until 14 March at or nominate your area for the 2019 award.

[Name
Address]

  1. Interview brief

What is Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood Award?

We’ve launched Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood Award to celebrate the places that put urban walkers first. Our award showcases areas that have been designed or improved to prioritise people on foot so that walking is the easy option.

What makes a good walking neighbourhood?

A good walking neighbourhood is one with well-connected networks of walking routes, accessible natural green spaces and well-designed public spaces.

Good walking neighbourhoods make it easy and enjoyable to go about everyday life on foot.

Why has the Ramblers launched the award?

Many of our towns and cities have been designed without people in mind, too often making places that are unsafe, unpleasant and difficult to navigate on foot. Since walking offers solutions to many of the nation’s most pressing challenges, including social isolation, obesity and air pollution, we want to see this change.

That’s why we’ve launched the very first Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood Award, to showcase towns and cities that have been designed or improved to prioritise people on foot and to urge more local authorities to think about how they could make small retrofits in design to improve walkability.

Why now?

The Department for Transport released figures last month showing that walking trips have declined by almost a fifth (19%) over the last decade, yet there’s mounting evidence to suggest that walkable towns and cities have proven health benefits for residents.

With around 20 million adults failing to meet UK government recommendations for physical activity, walking is the obvious answer. That’s why we’re calling on local authorities to make urban areas better designed for walking.

Which areas made the shortlist?

  • DG1 in Dumfries, Scotland
  • Diglis, Worcester, Worcestershire
  • Hackney, London
  • Hastings Old Town, East Sussex
  • Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria
  • Newtown, Powys, Wales
  • Salford, Greater Manchester
  • Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire
  • Town Moor, Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Walthamstow, London

How were the areas shortlisted?

We had lots of nominations from across Britain, all of which were considered by our experts and judged against our urban policy to determine how well the neighbourhood met the criteria.

Information considered included:

  • Whether the area had a well-connected network of walking routes
  • If there was accessible, high quality natural green space
  • If people can easily and safely access local amenities on foot
  • Whether there’s well-designed and maintained, streets, buildings and built infrastructure
  • If the area promotes walking or encourages people to make trips on foot

What can people do to get involved?

Head over to the Ramblers website and find out more about each of the shortlisted areas and then vote for your favourite. Voting closes on Wednesday 14 March.

What about areas that weren’t nominated but are great for walking, is it too late?

We’ve opened nominations for Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood 2019 award, so if you think your area should have been nominated then please download our application form and put them forward for consideration.

When will the winner be announced?

As soon as we’ve counted up all the votes, after 14 March, we’ll be announcing our winner! Keep an eye on the Ramblers website to stay up to date.

Call to action

  • Vote now in our first ever Britain’s Best Walking Neighbourhood Award:
  • From late April, lobby your local councillor candidates in the run up to the local elections. Even if you don’t have elections happening near you, you can still get in touch with your representatives to ask them to sign up to our Charter for Walkable Towns and Cities - we’ll be sharing more information about this soon.

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