Issue - meetings

-        Jim Shaw, Living Streets Project, to report

Members welcomed Jim Shaw (Living Streets) who was attending the meeting to explain the progress of the Living Streets Project. Mr. Shaw’s presentation included the following salient issues:-

: Living Streets is a national charity for pedestrians, established in 2000 as the successor to the Pedestrians Association which had formed in 1929;

: Living Streets is responsible for the annual ‘walk to school’ week for school pupils;

: a grant of £278,000 from the Big Lottery (Wellbeing Fund) has been obtained to implement the Living Streets project for Older Persons;

: the Older Persons project will last from April 2013 to March 2015 and includes capital funding for improvements to the public realm; most of the project will happen in Doncaster and Rotherham, although certain aspects will be County-wide;

: the principal benefits of the project are : (i) to identify barriers to walking within communities;  (ii) to assist in preventing the social isolation of elderly people; and (iii) measures to reduce the incidence of falls by elderly people.

: progress reports about the project will be submitted periodically to both the Rotherham and Doncaster local authorities;

: since the beginning of the Older Persons project, discussions have begun with officials representing Transport, Health and Adult Social Care in order to maximise the benefits of the project.

Members thanked Jim Shaw for his informative presentation.