Essex has been awarded a “game-changing” National Lottery grant of £10.68 million from Sport England to increase activity levels across Essex. The three-year plan will tackle the inequalities that prevent 391,600 people in Essex from enjoying the physical, social and mental health benefits of an active lifestyle.

The successful bid was made by the Essex Local Delivery Pilot (Essex LDP), which is led by the Essex Health and Wellbeing Board, Active Essex, and more than 20 partner organisations.

It is accepted that previous approaches to tackling stubborn inactivity have had mixed results and not been sustainable, so the Essex plan focuses on doing things differently and challenging the root causes of inactivity.

Essex’s exciting plans include:

• Getting local passionate people involved, who want to create activities in their areas
• Creating active parks, coastal paths and new walking and cycling routes
• Easy access small grants and support for community projects
• Investing in successful voluntary groups and charities to scale up their activities
• Training people in voluntary as well as paid roles, creating thousands of new volunteers, leaders and coaches
• Brightening up buildings, streets and parks to make them attractive places to be active
• World class measurement and evaluation which will be shared UK-wide