Come and exercise in Victoria Park!

Victoria Park now has its own Walk 4 Life route designed to take visitors on walks around the park - and they can choose from three walks of different lengths.

An easy walk of 550 metres takes walkers close to the park's lake.

At one mile the hardest of the three walks takes them around the whole perimeter of the park, talking them by key features the lake, bandstand and sunken garden.

The routes have been designed by Parks and Recreation staff at the Council working with Pendle Leisure Trust's Walking Officer and Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust's Health Improvement Service, in partnership with NHS East Lancashire.

Kieron Roberts, Principal Development Officer in Parks and Recreation, said:

"One of our actions in the Health Inequalities Action Plan is to do what we can as a council to help prevent coronary heart disease, one of Pendle's biggest health challenges.

"We hope that these walking routes will encourage more people to use Victoria Park for exercise.

"People just starting out on the road to getting fit can follow the shortest of the three routes, building up to a one mile walk over time."

All three walks start and end at the Victoria Park car park off Carr Road.

An information board near to the car park displays the routes on a map of the park, and different coloured waymarkers clearly mark all three routes along the way.

Plus a leaflet with all three walking routes is available. Electronic copies can be downloaded from Pendle Council's website www.pendle.gov.uk/Walk4Life, and to get a hard copy residents can call (01282) 661600.

The walks have also been included on the Change 4 Life website at www.nhs.uk/change4life.

And for cyclists Victoria Park, Barrowford Park and Alkincoats Park in Colne each have a new bike rack.

Designed in the style of penny farthing bicycles, the bike racks, which can accommodate two bikes each, make reference to the fact that many of Pendle's parks are Victorian.

Councillor Jonathan Eyre, Executive Member for Parks and Leisure, said:

"We're committed to helping Pendle residents to improve their health and hope to inspire them to use their nearest parks for exercise.

"You don't need any special equipment - and it's free!"

The funding for the bike racks and the healthy walks has come from Pendle Council's health inequalities budget, a one-off pot of funding to improve the health of Pendle residents.

For more information about the healthy walks around Victoria Park, contact Kieron Roberts, Principal Development Officer in Parks & Recreation, on (01282) 661587 or kieron.roberts@pendle.gov.uk.