A popular interactive game that helps whole communities get active is coming to the borough thanks to Dudley Council, the Canal & River Trust and the National Lottery via Sport England.

People use a Beat the Street card and map to travel by foot, bike, scooter or roller blades to one of 250 contactless “Beat Boxes” and aim to rack up as many visits and miles covered between the “Beat Boxes” as they can.

The game has been played by more than 1.5m people in more than 120 locations in the UK and beyond and is designed to get communities moving by helping people to make small changes, such as walking or cycling to school every day. Beat the Street not only has a significant impact on increasing low levels of physical activity amongst adults and children, but also helps reduce congestion, improves air quality, and helps families spend time in green spaces together.

The game is open to anyone of any age who would like to take part and takes place across Dudley borough from Wednesday 29 June to Wednesday 10 August. These dates coincide with the Commonwealth Games period, and are part of the celebration of the Games coming to the West Midlands.

To play Beat the Street, participating primary schools will provide cards for their pupils, and adults can pick up a free card from one of the distribution points listed on the Beat the Street Dudley website which will go live shortly.

Players then find their nearest “Beat Box” which are special sensors that record journeys once the game is underway. More than 250 of these will appear on lampposts around the area. These sensors are contactless so people don’t need to touch them – simply hover the card over the Beat Box and it will beep and flash to record points.

The first visit to a Beat Box registers the journey; then people can walk, cycle or roll to the next Beat Box within an hour to score 10 points.

Beat the Street Dudley has been commissioned by Dudley Council and the Canal & River Trust with support from the National Lottery via Sport England. It is being delivered by Intelligent Health. 

Councillor Ian Bevan, cabinet member for public health and wellbeing, said: "We are incredibly excited to be bringing Beat the Street to Dudley as part of the Commonwealth Games celebrations. It’s free to take part in Beat the Street and it’s open to everyone regardless of age, ability or background.

"We’ve seen the impact that the Beat the Street game has had in other areas on helping people get more active and helping people’s physical and mental health.

"It’s an inclusive game that brings an element of competition to exercise and will also help residents spend time exploring the area’s hidden gems with friends and family."

Ian Lane, head of strategic projects and lead for the Commonwealth Games at the Canal & River Trust said: ‘We’re really pleased to be working in partnership to bring this activity to our waterways across Dudley.

"‘Beat the Street’ will feature throughout the area and our beautiful historic canal network can used to navigate between them. This is a wonderful for us especially in a region where where most people live within just one mile of their local canal but have not yet realised its potential.

"We know that life is better by water, and by taking part it’s a great opportunity to explore, get active and experience how being by water can make a real difference to people’s mental health.”

More information is available at beatthestreet.me/dudley.