Take up the Safer, Greener, Healthier walking challenge to walk 3,000 steps a day

ECC walking challenge launched once more with free Go Jauntly fitness app offering chances to win weekly prizes.

Essex residents are encouraged to take part in the second annual Safer, Greener, Healthier 3k steps a day walking challenge, held in collaboration with the free walking app Go Jauntly.

Following the success of last year’s challenge in which residents took 100,000,000 steps during a six-week period, one participant each week will be in with a chance of winning an annual Go Jauntly Premium Membership.

There will also be three overall winners announced at the end of the challenge: the first prize will be a smart watch up to the value of £300; the second prize will be a pair of trainers up to the value of £200; and the third prize will be a £50 Clarks voucher.

Findings from last year’s challenge revealed that 60 per cent of participants said they walked more during the six-week challenge than they would do normally, with 67 per cent of people agreeing that the challenge encouraged them to walk more.

The 3K Steps Challenge is part of ECC’s ambition for Essex to become safer, greener and healthier by making it easier and safer for residents to walk or cycle, improving residents’ physical and mental wellbeing by reducing traffic congestion and cutting air pollution.

Cllr Lee Scott, Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Highways Maintenance and Sustainable Transport, said “We need to be bold if we’re going to take the steps needed to improve people’s health and safety. Cars emit pollution linked to respiratory disease, particularly in children and emissions are worse in slow moving traffic.

“The first part of the year is a perfect time to take up something new and we hope that many of our residents will sign up to our second challenge. If every car owner in Essex replaced just one, one-mile car journey with walking, that alone would save 13,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide being released a year.”

Sign up for the 3K Daily Steps challenge now.