What changes do we need to make to create the conditions, communication and cultural shifts that can better enable active lives for all in Greater Manchester?
Welcome to the Right to the Streets series of The GM Moving Podcast, where we invite you to join the conversation about what makes our streets, parks, and public spaces joyful, welcoming places.
In episode 5, we’re focusing on what it actually means to live an active life and what we are learning about what gets in the way. We will be heading to the GM Moving Conference to find out what are the key ingredients to creating the conditions for active lives from the people making this happen.
We are also joined by The Guardian’s Editor for the North of England, Helen Pidd, who will be talking about how communications and messaging, locally and in the media, impact our perception of safety on our streets, and the challenge of crafting a public narrative that normalises active lives and everyday moving for all, when public demand pushes the press to tell stories which amplify the extremes. Â
————————
Episode transcript available to download. (https://www.gmmoving.co.uk/media/5283/right-to-the-streets-podcast-series-3-episode-5-active-lives-transcript.pdf)
————————
The Right to the Streets podcast is just the start of the conversation and we want to hear from you. Tell us about the initiatives, movements, projects or moments in your community that are contributing to joyful, safe and more welcoming streets for all.
Send us a voice note (https://www.speakpipe.com/righttothestreetspodcast)
Please note, your voicemail may be used in a future episode of the Right To The Streets podcast and by leaving us a message you give GreaterSport permission to do so.
Welcome to the right to the streets edition of the GM moving podcast join the conversation about what makes our streets parks and public spaces joyful welcoming places for people to be and to be active join me Eve halt strategic leader at greater sport on the journey around the streets as we explore
People’s freedom to move about without fear in each episode we hear about the roles we can all play to make where we live work and play places where all women and girls feel they belong and are invited to be active We Gather stories experiences and ideas as we speak to strategic leaders
Decision makers and lots of local people who are creating the conditions in place for everyday moving and active lives for All in this episode we’re focusing in on some of the specific changes needed to create the condition communication and cultural shifts that can better enable active lives the GM moving mission is to enable active lives for all by growing a movement for movement active lives are therefore two
Words you’ll hear again and again during this series and throughout the whole of the day moving podcast but what does it actually mean to live an active life and what are we learning about what gets in the way come along with me to the annual GM moving conference and hear lots of
People from across greater Manchester who are helping create the conditions for active lives for all as I ask them what they think the key ingredients are to making this happen in practice I think often when we when I grew up certainly exercise was seen as a bit of
A punishment and I think active lives should never be framed as you have to exercise in order to pay for eating the wrong things um I think it should be about you should move more because it’s great and it’s fun in this episode I also speak to Helen PID the Guardians
Editor for the north of England we chat about how Communications and messaging locally and in the media impact our perception of safety on our streets and the challenge of crafting a public narrative that normalizes active lives and everyday moving for all whilst the public demand pushes the press to tell
Stories which amplify the extremes it’s really tricky because if you even like say if the statistics were to show that for every 50,000 people who cycle down the F field Loop one gets mugged right and it’s a really horrible mugging I don’t think the media would do a story saying
49,999 people uh got home safely last night so I think that you have to sort of counter the extremes on one side with the extremes on the other but first discover how local people are getting out and about and being active and the difference local groups and the local environment can Have come with me to Old Trafford to hear how a local Club is helping hundreds of people to gain the confidence they need to get outside and to start running Mal shy running club in Old Trafford meet every week for guided jogs and runs around the local area on
This cold dark evening I join the beginner session at the start of the year they started the couch to 5K challenge it’s a 9we running plan that anyone can do with the aim to build up to 5K run over those nine weeks this week the group is tackling week five
Which culminates in a Non-Stop 20 minute run we meet Jane the founder of the M shy Club Jane’s Fab she set the club up in 2017 and now has almost 3,000 members across their five sites in Trafford hey thanks for coming to meet us I met her outside of the beautifully lit Limelight
Center which is the base for the Old Trafford running club okay so now we’re inside a bit warmer got rid of my bag and my paner so tell us a bit about you Jane and yeah the Mal shy Club so I’ve been here three and a half years with my
Team of wonderful volunteer run coaches and we deliver beginner running sessions here from from Limelight in Old Trafford we’re really chuffed to be here we love this area uh we love the people who live around here and uh we really do make a difference so this one of 11 clubs that
We have uh at maai Club it’s one of my favorite clubs because I feel like we really make a difference here particularly with um Muslim women and the B community so why did you start the Mal Shai Club in the first place uh for a love of running and what running had
Done for me my mental health so running was one of the only things that really helped sort my head out and it had such a profound impact on my well-being that I wanted to bring it to others and it’s often seen as something that wasn’t accessible in the back we’ll get them
Running um yeah had such a profound impact on on my life that I wanted to bring it to other people and it’s not necessarily something that people find easy to get into so I started a beginner running club so that we could be open to
Anyone and yeah that was 6 years ago in January and here we are today and just give listeners a sense of the scale because the numbers are phenomenal of people that have come on in with you since you set this up yeah thank you so um it’s funny actually because I’ve been
Reviewing all of our clubs recently sort of planning for the future um and funding for the future so as a two weeks ago we have 3,14 members yeah which is pretty cool across all the running and the walking clubs um Plus 10K Runners but predominantly they are beginner Runners they’re people whove never
Exercised before coming into fitness so yeah we we we as a team it’s not it’s not being me it’s been our team we’ve got 27 qualified run leaders and upwards and then we’ve got four freelance pts and yoga instructors on our books if you like so they all get involved with
Getting people active it’s not just me anymore um so we’re all we’re all patting ourselves on the back of job well done but there’s a load more we can be doing you know we’re not finished by a long way we’re not finished by a long
Way so when did you start running uh a lot later in life so I was 28 and uh I did it as a way to stop smoking I was a heavy smoker and for a bit of me time so I started at 28 and started by there was
No CT a 5k program then so it was very much running down to the bottom of the street and uh getting injured Lots cuz I didn’t know how to do it uh in the gym there’s times in the gym when I’ve had to slide down the banister cuz I
Couldn’t move cuz my legs were so uh were so so broken but eventually after 6 months of pure grit I I did get through and I went and man a half marathon oh wow yeah I just started running and running when people said to me where what have
You done today and said I’ve run from here x from A to B and they said you’ve run there as if I was running a long way yeah and I ran back as if it was the most normal thing it broke me to start off with and but the benefits when I got
Into it without injuring myself managed to enjoy it that’s when I realized it was just having a great impact on me and my mental health and that’s why I want to bring to other people and obviously we’re going out for run with some of your coaches and some of the women um in
A little while I’m looking forward to that and men and men uh and it’s you know it’s it’s a dark evening isn’t it um and I know not a lot of us you know find it harder to get out and run on our streets particularly when it’s dark and
In is winter months so obviously running together as a group is an important part of what you’re helping facilitating why does that make a difference uh a few reasons one is it holds everyone accountable to commit to to the run so if you know you’re going to meet some
Friends later in the evening then you want to get out and and you want to make sure that you’re there on time um but also there’s uh safety numbers so running a lot of women will come to us particularly women men as well uh often site that they don’t like to run on
Their own so with other people makes them feel safer makes them feel more confident about going to certain areas as a group rather than going to places on their own and particularly when running in the dark um and our group meet in the evening uh it is a sort of a
People feel a lot more secure in a group setting when it’s when it’s when the hazards and things around them it’s great whilst I’ve been stood here talking to you I keep seeing more and more people com in through the doors and the running K ready to go so I know it’s
Interesting because this is one of our quieter clubs so our smaller clubs are Old Trafford and Partington and the larger clubs are s erston and stretford but with the smaller Club clubs comes a smaller community in a more more intimate setting so people are some people prefer that that smaller setup
Some people um like to see the same faces every week and not get bombarded by the numbers so you know our mission our GM moving mission is active lives for all and obviously do like this where you help facilitate provide that accountability have you know groups come
Together make it social is a key way in which we enable more active lives but we also know that the physical environment makes a big difference so the right to the streets project is really thinking about what can we do around our streets and our public spaces that mean they are
Safer they are more welcoming they are places that we all feel like we belong and that they invite all of us to be active so for you what what does that look like when you’re running around what what kind of spaces and places do you think reflect what good looks like
Well it’s interesting because when I started the club here there was a a lady we used I used to speak to and we’d run around a planing field here and there’d be a there’ be this little bit of dark alleyway would’ have to run down and
There would be a light and and and it and it was knocked out so someone had broken it so it wasn’t working and every week she said I’m on the case I’m on the case with the council I’m going to get it sorted or whoever it was responsible
For fixing this light and it got fixed and the week it was broken again so um for me I think say I was thinking about this I think safer streets is very much about light so having um lots of light but also um perhaps more of a police
Presence would be nice certainly in the early days we we saw uh police Community Support officers around here a lot which was great um but not so much these days um so more light wider streets so there’s lots of cars parked up on Pavements you can’t get past that’s a problem
Um there’s lots of paths here with routs coming up up the pavement know we’ve see that um so it would be nice to have uh better maintained foot paths better lighting streets and to make it more joyous as well I think it very much comes from within the community as well
I’ve got a friend here who lives here she one of my she’s one of my uh PTs in my books she set up some beehives in hulled Park and she gets together volunteers that get involved with gardening and that sort of thing I think when people take ownership and pride in
Their the place where they live then that helps promote safer environment a more welcoming environment uh but that takes time I suppose it takes time it’s quite noticeable actually on your on the approach to Limelight because there’s quite a few kind of quite a lot of Street Arts it’s quite nice kind of
Mosaics for some of the street signs there’s a real sense of kind of some local Traders as well quite a lot of small local traders that again feel like immediately felt like a safe place so people are going to welcome you um so all those things make a difference don’t
They is somewhere to go and feels like a community immediately feels like a community but the shops around here are fantastic you know there’s they are they’re independent Traders and you go in the fresh fruit and the r and everything I mean you can pick up anything here if you’re into your
Caribbean food it’s fantastic as more members of the club arrive at Limelight and get ready to go on their non-stop 20 minute run we head outside and I bump into Sam who’s one of mil Shy’s coaches she’s managing one of the other groups here tonight who are doing a full 5K run
So everyone’s getting ready to go for your run and I’m not going to step some between at you and your run but you just so it’s Sam isn’t it it’s Sam sin but everybody just calls me Sam yeah Sam so and you’re one of the the coaches that’s
Right yeah fastic and how how did you get involved well to be honest I got involved for the social aspect because I’ve been running since before Malai was actually set up in 2012 and I thought you know what I need to make some new friends I just mov to the area and stuff
Like that so I joined the Malai and I’ve never looked back since so I was in for about a year and then James said you fancy coach I said yeah why not I don’t mind encouraging people so the rest is history and I’m still here fantastic so
What do you get out of it then I think enjoyment CU it’s nice to push people um they think they can’t do it but once they’ve achieved the couch to 5K and they’ve actually done a 5K run and a part run it’s it’s a nice achievement to see that you’ve actually helped them
Along on their journey and we’ve on this is couched 5K run tonight isn’t it and and 5K as well and 5K okay and how far into the couch to 5K in how how long have they been going so far so this is week five tonight so they can do a 20
Minute run hopefully tonight without stopping so the more less halfway now well they all look like they came bouncing through the doors before so yeah they do There’s real sense of like energy of yeah being here which is fantastic and what anything in particular that you see their women get
Out of this experience you know any particular stories or some of the benefits that you think people experien I think obviously the most obvious is is getting fit losing weight and making friends and just getting out and enjoying it sometimes these women don’t get out they’ve got no friends and
They’re isolated and just come out and they’re more accountable cuz if you’re meeting somebody then you’re more likely to come out whereas if you say well I’ll go out then I’ll go tomorrow they go tomorrow you never go whereas here you know you got a set date set time you
Come out and there’s always somebody there to support you as well great right well I think we’re probably going to be heading off very soon so where where are we going to be running this evening right today I am taking cuz I’m doing the 5 care today so I am taking them
Down stretford Road into Manchester City Center along Lloyd North Street Moss Lane East and then just making our way back here and it’s just over I think it’s about 5.1k and that is all main roads apart from when you just get on the little bit here everything else is
Main road so should be well lit and straight roads I’ll be able to see where they are and the cars come back towards me they’re going too far if anyone has any injuries just as Jane’s delivering the all important warmup we chat to Razia another coach here at Maline a
Trustee she tells me about some of the benefits of running and some of the cultural barriers women May face to Leading an active life my name is Razia and I’m like here leading coaching and coaching for running like f couch to 5K I’m been involved with this organization
As a trustee but then because I completed my own couch to 5K so I thought like why not give it a go with other people as well so when did you first get involved last year as a trustee just to represent the community represent the people represent like you
Know our community and a women like from our community as well and what was it that Drew you in initially to do the couch to 5K Just Fitness like you know connecting again with nature and like you know be fit and healthy and good for myself like you know it’s my time me
Time and now and I mean it must be brilliant it’s fantastic that you’re doing this and just you know hearing the crowd out here this evening but then you also do sessions tomorrow in the day time as well you were saying uh I do different sessions it’s like again
Empowering session in the community for women understanding the importance of emotional and mental well-being and educating them empowering them really yeah and giving them tools to be more confident and more independent in their own self and what are some of the key barriers that some of the women face
When we think about actually being able to you know run jog walk around some of our local streets I think the areas and the time when they can go out at Winters it’s get it gets it’s really like you know dark early so then it’s a barrier
Again that we can’t go after 5 and especially in Islamic like we can’t go after certain time of the day out in like you know running in the park around the park and all that and sometimes we’ve seen like you know we heard about incidents happening in the Park which is
Not safe around the women’s or around anybody right you know so like Hollard park has been like you know we would avoid completely we would avoid somewhere where there is less people or less public so so and again if I would run I would want I don’t want too many
Public as well like you know around me when I’m running so I need a little my own safe space as well for women with hijab right they would want something more secure and more secluded right in like private areas where they can be like you know free and open and not
Coming in the eye of public like you know so that would be one of the a requirement and that is one of the barrier that you know we don’t feel very safe and it’s not appropriate culturally that just to go out and run in the public so maybe some secured
Space would be more recommended and required and it’s that first steps often the hardest bit isn’t it which is why the work that you do is so key and having people that you trust that get it you know who understand and you don’t made to feel silly for the things that
Maybe you know stand in your way and that that’s normalized is so important so thank you newest person to you so it looks like they”re getting torches on and already ready are you all yeah yes so all the runners are here and the coaches are ready and Jane starts to
Prepare the group for today’s run now I know you’ve already mentioned oh my God can you believe this at the end of week five does anyone know what happens at the end of week five is that when we do a 20 minute run it’s 20 minute continuous run yeah that’s when we go
From run walk to running okay it’s normal to freak out at this point and history has told us that for people getting to this stage they drop out after Jane’s briefing put on my active souls and joined Jane for a jog on the street beside Limelight Center she
Points out to me Pen Park a local place that they avoid running around as a group this is Pen Park in the left it’s one of the places that we can’t go at night um we can when it’s dusk but we do have uh openly people dealing drugs
Which you know we kind of to it sort of thing but there’s been just before Christmas I was talking to Natasha somebody was murdered there U and we’ve had other incidents in that particular Park where women have been assaulted and sexually assaulted not from our club
Just in the public so as a result we only go in that Park if it’s light so summertime and as a group and we stay together running alongside Jane is one of the local members of the group it tells you about her local neighborhood and some of the issues she and her
Family have experienced we’ve got real lovely neighborhood the trouble doesn’t come from our neighborhood it comes from outside especially in the summer and as Jane said unfortunately that gentleman got assaulted before Christmas and later died obviously I brought my children up there we’ve had antisocial Behavior there for about six years every summer
I’ve had the police local counselors Labor candidates everyone involved and it took us three years just to get the light bulbs they were only put in just after the summer uh so it’s been horendous that means my children can’t use the green in the park in the summer because of outside antisocial behavior
Is there anything other than lighting then that makes a difference that makes it feel safer there’s a lot of fly tipping and rubbish it’s not safe to run they don’t come and sweep the path properly so they’re overgrown with overhanging branches and there’s just so much Leaf debris it’s so
Slippy now I have to admit running and trying to record is pretty hard bit like challenge Ana so after the run me and the local residents continue our chat standing still as you found out tonight we’ve got some really uneven Pavements we’ve got lots of tree stumps that have
Been knocked down but there’s no markings around it in some areas the lighting is really bad and the good thing about coming in a group is if somebody Takes a Tumble we’ve got a first AIT we’ve got first aiders and then you get you got you’re not on your
Own basically this place where we are now so outside Limelight there’s such a sense of community here and and it feels like a place that there is community ownership and Community Pride there’s a lot of Street Arts you know we went past um OT creative on the way past and it
Was like buzzing outside and then when you go back to Pen Park I guess it just looked a bit desolate didn’t it it didn’t look like somewhere that has a clear I didn’t even know it had a name an identity and an ownership anything else about that around you know someone
That lives next door to it but what what makes a difference I lived adjacent to for 20 years and like I said I only found out when I came to my shy that it was actually called Pen Park um we had the tower blocks there for a long time
So it’s quite hard to create a community in the tower block sense of things um the people that have lived on the houses at the bottom of the flats have lived there for a very long time we have a really stable great Community my neighbor makes me cakes all the time I
Make her soup you know um on our littl day we are we are a community um we just don’t tend to get invited it’s almost like because we’re so close to the Manchester the city council boundary it’s almost like we’re not part of Old Trafford where we feel like a very cuz
The other side of the main road as well we feel like there very forgotten island of Old Trafford I think when the new development comes which at Trafford Council Trafford Housing Association are about to build the 2506 Eco homes we’re hoping that’ll bring a bit more families
Um there’s going to be a community space there apparently and hopefully that’ll just bring the green to life cuz for years my neighbors have all seen me as the community spokesperson I come to the meetings here I meet with the police the labor counselors trying to get the
Rubbish picked up trying to get a hold of the antisocial Behavior which doesn’t come from Old Trafford it comes from really outside when we have had the police involved we found out that some of these people are coming from as far as old them to come down and deal drugs
In the area and they removed our cameras so the antisocial Behavior goes unchecked whereas in other areas now where the new development is it’s a lot more secure people feel safer to come out so it’s it’s sad but I would say we still have our own little community and
I I go out and walk my dog on Pen Park at 5:00 every morning I don’t feel afraid cuz I’ve lived here for 20 years and I know the people around about me so but yeah it would be helpful if um it was kind of a bit more included into all
Trafford just a good example of how in place you know whether it’s roads or whether it’s kind of those artificial boundaries I suppose the kind of political boundaries as opposed Community boundaries can really dissect a place can’t they and as you say stop somewhere from feeling included so we
Talk a lot about you know belonging within a place but also Place belonging within a place and what identity does it have so yeah it’s just really interesting to to hear the difference that makes yeah I think it’s a combination of tower blocks being a little bit isolated and as being stuck
Between two main roads really we are really a kind of residential Island that like I say tends to get forgotten yeah well I’ll be yeah looking on with gra curiousity when I cycop pass next time and now I know it’s Pen Park yeah it’s a
Big it’s a big green space isn’t it that you know yeah the potential if it did have that invitation to to be in it and to feel safe in it you know could be a great place to be active but not absolutely fantastic and unfortunately over the last four years my children
Have not been able to use that space because of the influx of people doing antisocial behavior and most I mean there must be maybe 30 children that live on that estate um in the houses just not including the flats because the flats you only used to be able to have
Children up to the fourth floor and since they’ve enclos the balconies children live up to the 14th floor so they’ve always said they will protect that space But I don’t think protection is just enough it’s like let’s use it let’s let’s make something happen on that space any community community
Events that have happened in the past tend to happen on the St alons scen not on that side and I think that’s one thing that Manchester sorry Trafford could maybe do is create a couple of events on the green to bring people from this area over to see what a great
Resource it is there is a great play partk there’s a basketball pitch and there’s a lot of green space that real invitation real invitation come and use it and activate it and animate it cuz you a cup of tea yeah well I’m there
I’ll have you a cup of tea and I have a cake from your neighbor and um yeah maybe we to need to go and do that it sounds fantastic thank you massive thank you to Jane and the M shy club for letting us tag along to their Wednesday night running club and a
Huge well done to all of the couch to 5K Runners so we’ve heard how confid and guidance can support active lives and how the built environment and place can be a barrier but what about the messages that we hear at a community level and in the media and how do they impact on whether or not we are active
Helen PID the north of England editor for the guardian joins me online for chat about Communications Helen lives in Stockport and is also the founding member of walk ride greater Manchester an organization who campaigned for active travel I start by asking Helen why walking and cycling
Matters to her I’m so I really enjoy cycling I’m a member of a women’s only Cycling Club called teen glow in Manchester so I do that kind of socially and on the weekends and I do like cycling in a kind of utilitarian way just to get from A to B cycling to work
Around town and things like that and I’ve become a bit obsessed with getting my 10,000 Footsteps in so I walk when I can and I know as well that you were key in I guess a particular instance weren’t they that took place on on the ffield loop in Manchester where you got
Involved because you got your attention and you took some action in Deeds not words to to Manchester women’s Spirit yeah so back in October 2018 there were a few women from my Cycling Club team glow who all had the same horrendous thing happened to them when they were
Cycling on the ffield loop which is one of the main off-road cycle routes in South Manchester and they were both basically mugged for their bikes or they were attempted mugging because actually these women are pretty Fierce and they fought back and they kept hold of their bikes but it was
A really scary thing all they were trying to do was get home from work and they got ambushed by groups of youths in really scary incidents and they found in each case that the police just didn’t seem to want to know were very slow in coming to the scene and didn’t seem to
Have any enthusiasm for actually trying to catch those who were responsible and it just really enraged me and it was sort of personal as well because I use the F field Loop quite a lot I really don’t like cycling on busy roads and it cuts off miles and miles of busy traffic
It’s A really lovely route and I realized I was frightened to cycle on it now so I just thought well maybe what we should do is have a protest a two whe protest and I’ve since found out there were 10 muggings in 10 cyclists have been mugged on that little stretch um in
The last week so I talked to some of my friends from Team glow including the women who had been mugged for their bikes and sort of asked if they were up for it and we decided to have a a protest cycling on the ffield loop to
And we recycled all the way to one of great Manchester police’s kind of headquarters in East Manchester and back again and I just thought it was quite a good way of getting media attention and kind of shaming the police into action I think it was my first protest that I
Ever organized um you usually as a journalist I am reporting on people doing stuff rather than agitating myself yeah Round of [Applause] Applause you know I don’t know how I think we probably got about 200 people here 300 as as a journalists we’re always I kind of got special permission from the
Guardian actually because it aligns so much with the guardian’s values in terms of safety for women and also active travel I was allowed to do it and we had several hundred people come out we got on the local news and I really think as a direct result of that great and
Manchester police woke up it was pretty embarrassing to them they got in touch with me and they did start to actually investigate and they did C some of the lads who were responsible so it kind of showed to me that direct action can work and as a direct result of the ffield
Loop protest I and a group of other like-minded people came together and we founded what became walk ride greater Manchester this kind of campaign group to make it nicer and safer to walk or ride a bike it definitely hit a nerve didn’t it and I came along to that
Protest joined you in agitation and I mean there were I don’t know if you know the numbers but there were certainly a lot of a lot lot of women out on that day who you know again wanted to be able to use that space it’s a brilliant
Anyone who doesn’t know you know it’s a fantastic off you know no traffic green route um through sort of South Manchester I use it regularly and it is you know it can genuinely be very joyful um but it’s not if you’re fearing for your safety but I do remember some of
The dilemas at the time because of course as soon as then you get attention to say this is the experience that some women have had it creates a great a sense of fear doesn’t it you know more of us felt fearful then of using it which then the risk is that less people
Use it and actually less people using it and less people that look like us in our diversity really does make it unsa and that’s one of the dilemas that keeps coming up in this project as well is how do you point to you know very genuine acts of violence against women that
Happen as well as a day-to-day sexism and misogyny that we experience out on our streets validate that and recognize that and like you did make sure this action is taken and how do we at the same time try and remove some of the fear that has been so built into all of
Us since we’re very small that this place isn’t for us yeah when I organized the felli loop protest I did come in for a bit of flak quite a lot of flak actually from some quarters there was some people who had been really instrumental in the creation of the
Field Loop it used to be an Old Railway line and they felt kind of personally quite affronted that rather than focusing on the you know the wonderful wildlife and the Clean Air that I was focusing on these negative incidents and I I kind of saw their point but what’s
The alternative should we just bury the fact that these terrible things are happening and just turn a blind eye to the fact that the police didn’t seem to want to know about them so ultimately you know what I can sort of understand those concerns I I just don’t think it
Would be a solution to pretend that there aren’t problems that certainly is not going to effect change in any case you know and as a journalist we often get accused of focusing on the negatives and not reporting enough positive news I suppose that’s because news what makes a
News story is something which is at the extremes usually it’s something which is unusual which catches your attention and uh which is a bit out of the ordinary and all too often those are bad things and people say they want to read positive news stories but I know for a
Fact they don’t because I I can see the statistics on the guardian website and stupid stuff gets read celebrity stuff gets read but actually people love reading about terrible crimes you know when Sarah everod was murdered interest through that went through the roof Nicola bully we’re talking at a time
When there’s been this woman in Lancashire who went missing while walking her dog she was sadly found her remains in the river there was huge interest in that story so people are interested in the extreme the sad the tragic and I kind of make no apology really as a journalist for covering that
Kind of thing but yeah it can have the effect of maybe over amplifying and giving an impression that things are worse than they actually are whereas statistically speaking if you cycle down the FY Loop chances are you’ll be absolutely fine you know I don’t cycle it now in the dark and this
Is four and a half years on I had a recent experience I went to one with the lady pedal um cycling story events and of course because there was a mass of us there as women at the event who were then cycling back to the toon W range
Area we realized that we could all cycle along the loop together even though it was dark had gone there along the loop you know on my own the daylight coming back I assume I’d have to face you know the busy traffic in the dark and that’s
Just the way it’d be because I wouldn’t do the loop and suddenly that Journey was transformed to 30 minutes with a group of women who was chatting it genuinely was so joyful and such a sense of Liberation to be Hest I was quite surprised that even someone that thinks
About these things at how shocked to was at how nice it was to just be able to do that and to use that space I think sort of as women I sort of just sort of accepted in a way that for several months of the I like running as well
Well do I like running I don’t know I go running I prefer to run before my breakfast um in the morning just works better for me and I just sort of accept in November December January it gets dark too late so I can’t go before work
So I don’t run in the winter but that’s not cool is it like we should be able to get out there and if all we’re trying to do is keep fit or get some fresh air clear our heads that we feel that we can’t do that in the dark it’s you know
It’s a pretty sad thing and I see my husband going out in the dark sometimes and I envy him that even though statistically I know I’ll probably be fine it’s been so conditioned in me to be afraid it’s quite a hard thing to overcome definitely I so one of the
Things that I’ve tried to do po purposely this year is to start going and running in the dark cuz I realized I struggled to get my runs in like you say in winter in daylight and it’s kind of been a bit of an act partly because of
This project really of kind of personal kind of sense of activism of actually I’m just going to go out and I am going to run at night and it has enabled me to run far more than I generally do or can but it does come it feels like an act of
Resistance you know it feels like I’m fighting myself I’m fighting my you know partner who’s going oh please be careful when you leave and I’m still picking my route very care carefully and it’s been interesting in sharing on social media doing that I’ve had number people contact me saying that they found that
Quite inspiring as well and they felt inspired to simly kind of go okay maybe I will go and run at dark or go out and not feel fearful but that then comes of a sense of responsibility as well because then I think well what if what if something happens to me I immediately
Think that’s my fault because I’ve decided to do that what if something happened to somebody else so already I’m victim blam myself and assuming the worst which that is just you know me a little following so I can imagine as well in the media when you know you’ve
Got a massive following how do you that balance of one you say people want the negative news but also the risk that if you put out a positive story and encourage people to do something is there a sense of responsibility as well for what might follow there is a responsibility that
Comes with it last summer I’d written an article in the guardian about cycling and how I felt like people would get really rgy there had been a real peak in antic cyclist kind of media retention and I was photographed for this article cycling down deansgate in Manchester
Where they just created a new segregated bik light I didn’t have a helmet on and for some people that’s just like that’s so irresponsible you of all people why are you not wearing a helmet so I guess I do carry a bit of responsibility for
That but I I find it very irritating you know with the helmet debate let’s not get bogged down with that but the fact that people are more inclined to blame me rather than a potential driver plowing into me or a bus or a lorry turning left so I kind of accept the
Responsibility even though I don’t really I don’t see myself as a role model I get that all the time why are you not wearing a helmet but again I feel a sense of responsibility that’s only the way it’s been framed hasn’t it you know again if you if you’re able to
Point to the evidence more you know we put a big barrier in the way of people living an active life by telling them they need to wear you know do risk assessments before they take a group of people for a walk you know we created all these massive barriers to people
Doing what should be everyday things about just getting about under your own steam in a safe way and yeah isn’t there a responsibility to support people to be active and not contribute to that one in six deaths that follow from inactivity and you know all the rest of it so we’ve
Talked a lot about Framing and around public narrative and how do we then shift so for example we talked a little bit about I guess that car Centric language that’s become so embedded in everything including our media where everything naturally adopts this position that we’re dependent on cars
And we’re taking away people’s freedom and their Liberty if we do something that restricts it trying to challenge that is huge and trying to shift that and as a journalist when you know that the clicks come if you play to that and you play into what is already the
Current kind of culture how do you gradually change the diet of the Beast it’s about providing a balance I suppose and providing kind of counter examples you know across all sections of the media whether that’s kind of comments travel pieces Fitness pieces so that it’s not just particularly not just dominated by
Men because often these things are and I you know I really noted with with the field Loop protest as we’ve already discussed more than 50% of the people who turned up were women and I really think that’s probably because I’m a woman and I was fronting it the same is
True of wride Greater Manchester you know previously active travel campaigning in Greater Manchester was very very bloky and it was very kind of like a boys club sort of thing but um you know three of the directors of wride GM were women and I think that that is
Reflected in in who feels comfortable to come up and talk and raise issues so I think the representation is really important and do you find yourself consciously you know we can’t be what you can’t see when you’re reporting and articles do you intentionally make sure that we see more women and hear more
Women stories in those articles yeah definitely and there was I mean there’s been a push at the guardian in recent years to make sure that there are women’s voices and women’s pictures like the editor of the Guardian is a woman we have the first woman in 2011
Years and what she does is there is a a wall at the office in London where they paste up every page of the Guardian each night when it’s going to press and she used to walk past it and be like where are the women where are the women
Where are the women and the picture editors s of they just got used to being like we need to have better representation and women need to not just be the ones in the kind of mothering roles or women as victims but also kind of women as the sort of
Architects of their own fate and destiny and doing cool things I really do think it matters and I if I’m doing a story and I need to quote three experts like shame on me if they’re all Bloks but the thing is that women this is a generalization are more likely to say no
When approached for comments they’re more and I do this myself sometimes uh when I’m asked to do stuff I’m like I’m not really an expert in this I’m not sure you know ask and then BLS you know there some isn’t there some statistic that women think oh if I don’t know 90%
About this topic I’ll say no whereas BLS be like if they know 10% a they’ll kind of wing it so I think there is a bit of nness on on women to actually speak up and have their voices heard and to kind of trust in their own expertise and
Their own judgment because I think that well again it’s a generalization that women can be a bit too reticent to put the head above the parit and kind of be heard I mean some of the research have done around that particularly around women in politics showed as well that
There is a there is another reason for that it’s not just necessarily about women’s reticence and confidence that that is because they’re more likely also to be criticized if they are seen to get it wrong and particularly again and we’ve seen haven’t we about women in
Politics and in the media you know if you’re a woman of color you’re even more likely to get Negative criticism if you get a stat wrong that maybe a white bloke could do the same thing and it just gets passed off but suddenly it goes to the core of your credibility in
A very sharp way and it can be very harsh critique So speaking to lots of women their caution actually is validated by what they see in here as evidence around about what happens then when you’re you do get it wrong or you’re not spot on or or people don’t
See you as the extra you get it right and then people just think that you’re yeah you know when I look in my inbox the people who complain about my articles it is 90% men sometimes they try to correct things that I know are right that kind of confidence to just
Bowl in assuming that you know more and I’m happy to always correct things I want my stories to be right so I’d humbly say thank you and then we change things but um yeah you get a lot of abuse and um you know if you’re if you’ve got over a
Certain number of followers on Twitter Twitter you get a lot I spend a lot of time muting people blocking people and the abuse can uh can be quite personal about your personal appearance and uh intelligence or lack thereof and it can get very sometimes it’s really hurtful and it’s also really tedious
Yeah so we’ve talked you mentioned kind of the need for balance so how I guess if we’re reporting and if you’re seeing the data and you therefore know what it is that people are hungry for and that’s actually negative stories and it’s it’s not this positive everyday news and
Being able to you add some balance and we’ve heard a lot in this project around guess to that point really the the gap between people’s perception as you describe it of of not being safe and the data reporting that actually most of the time you probably are quite safe we can
We can provide more balance and try and counter and provide both but we know that the headlines like to be the bit the sticks the most so actually often the detail that follows might make balance it in theory but people probably won’t even get to read that bit or it
Won’t be the bit that sticks is there anything else that we can do if we want to paint this picture of welcoming joyful active streets and places and we want that to be front and center is there anything else that we can do to help make that the norm and
What people click on and see and amplify it’s really tricky because if you even like say if the statistics were to show that for every 50,000 people who sign call down the fellfield loop one gets mugged right and it’s a really horrible mugging I don’t think the media would do a story saying
49,999 people uh got home safely last night so I think that you have to sort of counter the extremes on one side with the extremes on the other because although I said before people don’t like good news it’s not kind of true they do but they like kind of extreme good news
So you’d have to be you have to be picking like really you know if you can find really inspiring people who are amazing speaking who maybe have got something that’s unusual about them whether that might be I don’t know a disability or a talent or something different about their
Background and kind of put them forward as the spokes people yeah organizing eye-catching things eye-catching events that might kind of peak the interest of of journalists it’s not easy I’m not sure I have any solutions for you but it’s all about telling stories and telling stories that are interesting and
Compelling and it is possible to do that in a positive way it’s just a bit harder and I appreciate that what you’re trying to do is just normalize and make this cone of very every day and that you don’t have to be some superhero to go
For a jog at 7 a. in winter but it’s quite hard to get that message out you know I did an interview recently with a guy who wants to be the first person with no legs to climb Everest and he was really interesting and so inspiring you know his legs had
Been blown he was a gerker in the British army his legs had been blown off like by wouldn’t do a story about just any old person climbing Everest so it’s always the extremes but if think if you can find people who are really interesting in their own rights who can kind of step
Forward and be the spokes people then you might have some Success and finally to round this episode up I’m at the G moving conference at the etad stadium to ask our partners and colleagues who working across the GM moving agenda in all parts of Greater Manchester about their experiences ideas and solutions to help everyone move more every day these are
The people who day in day out are helping to create the conditions for active lives for all this includes Grassroots football clubs outdoor Venture groups movements and campaigns it’s lunchtime at the conference and I find Angela and Laurel from Manchester active and I ask them what are the key
Ingredients to enable active lives for all I guess ease is the first one sometimes it feels like trying to fit physical activity into my day is a challenge so I’ve just tried to find ways where I can do that quite simply and it becomes part of my routine now so
Being able to kind of walk the kids to and from school or just in terms of like my child care Arrangements I walk to pick them up from CH mind or after school club so I can quite easily build up at least 30 minutes some times up to
An hour of walking around my neighborhood cuz I’m going from A to B likewise if I’ve got a choice of using the car or public transport I know by using public transport I’ll be including some walking in that in that Journey so that might be my preferable choice
Because it means I’m going to get my exercise in for the day but yeah it’s a real Challenge and it’s a real balance of just trying to build it in fit it in not feeling guilty about it as well I think sometimes I give myself a bit of a
Hard time at work in physical activity you almost feel like you know you’ve got to do it because you are trying to leave by example but you know we struggled to try and fit it in as well I think just trying to include moving more you know accepting that that’s really good for
You doesn’t have to be getting getting equipment or getting particular clothing it’s just getting out and moving more when we’re talking about like streets and being outdoors and active streets um it it can sometimes be very challenging in terms of the reducing car usage getting more people like walking and
Cycling and you always come up against the people that are like really anti that that way but if you kind of challenge them on things like well you know do you want your children to breathe like cleaner air and that kind of thing and like appealing to what what
Their values are I think that’s something that we would probably all agree on but it’s that political will I guess to be bold but then something we’ve all got to incorporate into how we I guess like live our lives and how we um interact with others in our working
Lives as well so for them it’s all about designing moving more into everyday lives so it just becomes a normal part of people’s everyday routines my name is Ryan Bostock and I work for real PE so I’m Kathy Brown and I am from real PE as
Well so real PA is a unique child- centered approach for curriculum PA I ask Cathy and Ryan what they think creates the conditions for active lives for all they tell me that for young people especially parents carers and schools have a very important role to
Play so I think it is people having the enthusiasm and the motivation and the confidence to um to be active it’s about knowing what they what the opportunities are available to them and often a negative early experience or negative experience can detract people and children adults from from taking part in
An active lifestyle so I think it is around early intervention for children ensuring that they can grow up developing the the physical skills the behaviors that enables them to feel that they can be active that they want to be active but also it is around the parents
Of the children um a lot of parents aren’t confident being active and if we looking at that cultural change we have to um bring parents and children together and then by focusing on children and families at an early age we can create habits and behaviors that will enable them to have a lifelong
Relationship a positive relationship with physical activity so it’s a it’s a it’s a long game as well really I think you’ve got to one you’ve got to get the buying from the school in terms of them meeting the the curriculum needs and the the physical activity guidelines but
Then as soon as they leave those School doors they can’t quite monitor what goes on at home so in terms of them being able to find something that that manages that sort of active time at home and then providing that opportunity for them to sort of when they come back into
School they can manage and they can pick up on that on that key learning just across the road I bum pintis with my great sport colleagues who head up our work with young people uh my name is Christine and I uh work for greater Sports hi I’m Lauren I’m from greater
Sport hi I’m Jess I’m from greater sport I ask them what role young people can play in helping themselves and their peers to be more active I think they just need to be given a voice on it because we can’t be young people once you go up you don’t know what kind of
Their opinions their thoughts on this you know what we might deem as a usable space might not be something that they want to use or they feel safe to access what we deem as cool and in you know let’s put a skate park up cuz actually they’re skateboarding you know we don’t
Know so it it’s listening to them it’s taking their voice in and young people will come up with things that naturally adults or people in the system would straight away say no you know why can’t we draw something on the Pavements to encourage kind of activity to be fun as
People are walking to school why can’t you put you know more equipment on the street as people are walking for to to be used um and actually young people have those ideas that we can and sometimes we need to just stop saying no straight away listen to them and see
Where we could meet in the middle a little bit to yeah to make it a little bit more accessible I think just talking from the children young people we’re we’re doing in great at Manchester and there’s an element of making sure they’re followed up with so making sure
We do get the youth voice at the center and giving their opinions to what they want and how they want to lead their lives but they’re told about it in terms of the follow-up Loop and the feedback loop to actually what was done with their information what did what was the
Contribution that they made and how did that impact on decisions I think from a children young people point of view it makes it really relevant um hearing their voices but also I think we’ve got a responsibility in our areas of work to enable those Young Voices to be heard uh and working
With those networks and really enabling those conversations to happen so I see that we’ve really got responsibility um within greater Sport and that’s part of our work stre is the children young people team to enable that to happen I’m ding Gilmore I’m the partnership development manager for school sport
Partnerships in Salford I’m Sharon wal I’m a school games organizer in Wigan Dean and Sharon are also fans of listening and explain to me why they think the art of listening is key to identifying the barriers that prevent people from moving more listen to them and everything is different things for
Different people but find out what the needs are and it might be a very simple barrier that they can’t get to the place they want to do something because the journey there doesn’t feel safe to them yeah I would agree they’ve got to feel confident to go out there and think some
Of that can be built up in themselves as well so I think being listened to and being heard and feeling confident that you’ve been heard would make a big difference and next I speak to Charlie from Manchester active she’s all about making active lives fun I think a key
Ingredient for enabling active lives is about it being fun I think often when we when I grew up certainly exercise was seen as a bit of a punishment and I think active lives should never be framed as you have to exercise in order to pay for eating the wrong things um I
Think it should be about you should move more because it’s great and it’s fun so you’ve heard how important it is to make moving fun to involve people to listen and to help design it into everyday life but what about money it’s something that cat from curators of change feels as
Important to discuss when it comes to creating the conditions for active lives for all actually taking it right back to the point of the fact that there is nothing about activity that is free um even from buying a pair of trainers that’s decent enough to walk in or run
In to having to wash and have the right clothing and stuff um so I think there are some absolute fundamentals that we have to be getting right in our society um and how we support people and not just assuming that everybody has what a lot of us take for granted in terms of
Um materials and and things to do stuff and then I think as well you know a lot of the work that I do is is with people and communities where actually there’s that pressure to um to get active or to eat healthier or to do all those things but actually there’s not much
Consideration given to what else is going on in their life and the fact that it’s really hard to get over the psychological barrier or you know do you get somebody to look after your kids or um you know where do you even start with it so I think it’s taking it right back
To Grassroots for me and that is grounded in the relationships and the conversations that we have with people and how we can really get into ourselves as people working in this space into the heart of the spaces where people are and really just listen to what what would
Help them it’s not only cat who’s got money on her mind John from alternative Adventure Outdoor Activity service explains that life and all its complex exi is can be the biggest barrier for people moving more it’s a bit of a virtuous circle as well isn’t it if
You’re fit and healthy it’s easier to keep fit and healthy being comfortably off helps as well unfortunately in that respect being able to yeah being able to be active comes on comes after a lot of other things are in place yeah it’s almost the icing on the cake I’m krie
From a brilliant thing krye too wants us to think about our lives and most importantly to check our per um I think we’ve got to recognize privilege before we do anything else so what does active mean to you and me and what are our barriers um that we might
Face um and actually sometimes we can be working towards not being active in some of the things that we do and actually that those are the things that are keeping us safe or keeping us happy so I don’t think it’s just about telling people what to
Do uh I’m Olivia and I’m from from City and the community I’m George I’m from Barry Council Olivia explains why accessibility is a real issue especially again around money whil George says that communication between different services and agencies is a really key ingredient it’s money the programs we put on are
Free because we work in areas of higher deprivation but I don’t think there’s enough people out there there’s enough companies out there doing that like you have to pay for everything and if it’s not accessible then people aren’t going to get active they’re not going to like
Go and do these things things and I think yeah accessibility is one of the main main main things so yeah accessibility that’s a bit of I’m nicking the point but I think that’s one of the main ones uh for myself but then it’s just like word of mouth and
Actually Communications and sort of like events like us and networking and speaking to people letting people know what’s about in each other’s sort of borers helping each other like lessons learn and stuff like that we have like monthly sort of meetings where I’ll meet other sort of um colleagues within like
Great Manchester from like Wigan and Stockport and talk about what they’re sort of doing for active travel um and then we’ll sort of go back and have different meetings about all what we’re doing so we’ve just launched a bite Library so a guy from Wigan wanted to
Know more about that and how it works for when he launches is so it’s just sort of sharing lessons I suppose and sort of networking and helping each other out hello my name is olly and I’m from Greystone Action Sports in sford um my name is Tom and I’m also from uh
Greystone Action Sports in sford Tom and Olie bring it back to fun and of course a range of opportunities and activities variety of activities for everyone people aren’t going to like the same thing so offering as many different Avenues as possible keep I know it sounds so so boringly simple but keep it
Fun I think that’s what draws and keeps people in the most I think yeah like you say it’s just opportunities for everyone to get engaged and everyone’s got something that they enjoy doing and it’s just about connecting communities connecting people to those activities making them accessible and finding
Finding out where ways resources and networks in which everyone can find habits that they can do and fit into their lives everyone’s got different lives we’re all different we all like different things we all get a buzz off different things and it it’s it’s just finding that and make finding a path to
Get there and do it and make it habit finally I grab Andy from The Bike Kitchen who explains that enablers are the biggest ingredient to create the conditions for active lives for all so we save bikes on fill so we get donated bikes which we fix and then either we
Sell to cover the cost of where it’s C to replace them or in some cases we’ve got bikes that aren’t we fixed but aren’t really of um a quality sellable V who donate them so the enabler there is well actually how do I physically move
So I I want to ride a bike but I’ve not got one can’t afford one can’t afford the upkeep of it so the enabler there is well there’s the bicycle there’s the scooter there’s the trike there’s the the method of movement and then it’s that’s that’s part of it and the next
But then is that infrastructure makes people feel safe to do it in the first place so if they’ve not got a safe in their mind a safe wave that might be it’s a linked up cycopath to the park to somewhere else so you’ve got an off an
Off-road route um to tackle that that perception of danger if you’ve once you’ve got that people and want a bike it there’s no point having a bike and I’ve got a bike and I’ll never ride it cuz the road’s too dangerous you want to have they kind of run hand in hand so
Enablers for us are the tools and the actual physical equipment to do so our Al extra a little bit is once you’re doing that it’s keeping that bike on the road so obviously bikes are expensive to repair so having some basic knowledge can save you some money before you start
So we we operate a number of basic maintenance courses then that are available from other places that allow the the person who’s got that bike to get that bike on the road before it gets some more difficult or more task heavier task job again that’s an enabler so I
Know I can fix my bike I know I can fix it to a certain level something really goes wrong with it I need to go to the shop but you’re cutting those costs down you’re cutting that sort of that barrier down so we’ll actually can’t go and do
It a big thanks to everyone who we spoke to at the G moving conference what a buzzing Day if you’d like to come to the next conference keep a lookout on our socials and on the GM moving website we’ve already started planning on next one for February
2024 thanks for listening to this active Lives episode of the right to the streets edition of the GM moving podcast this episode has covered a lot of the different barriers that can really get in the way of people living an active life be that cost culture Communications caring responsibilities or the
Day-to-day challenges like transport time and conflicting pressures we’ve heard how important it is therefore to make activities fun social affordable accessible and to design in a way that can fit with the realities of people’s day-to-day lives life this means listening to people really listening tailoring to what
Matters to them and to our different individual motivations it’s clear getting active on our streets in our parks and across our communities is not just down to the individual we all have a role we can play to enable more people to move more of the time you can hear more about the work
Going on at local level across greater Manchester to enable active lives in series 2 of the dear moving podcast you can also read more about what we are learning about the different influences on whether or not people are active and the inequalities that exist on our GE
Moving website we’d love to hear more from you what messages and stories do you see and hear around active lives which connect with you and inspire you to move more and which act as a barrier what language resonates and what jars if you got a story you can share about who
And what helps you to be active whatever it is let us know and we’ll share your thoughts on future episodes of this podcast we’ve got a few ways you can get in touch you can tell us on social media we’re on Facebook and Twitter simply search GM moving or
Greater sport or you can leave us a voicemail you can find the link in the episode show notes and an ogm moving website just search write to the streets podcast a big thanks to everyone who has contributed to this episode we’ll be releasing more episodes throughout the
Next few months so keep an eye on our social media Pages for when the next one will be released or simply hit follow or subscribe on whatever podcast player you’re listening to right now this means the latest episode will go straight into your library as soon as it’s released
This right to the street series the GM moving podcast is one element of the right streets project led by great sport traff Council open Daya Manchester and of a g moving Partners thanks to funding from the home office for safer streets this series is a mic media Production