AN INTERACTIVE game aimed at getting Swindon on its feet will be launched next month as part of the borough’s latest fight against flab.

It turns getting fit and losing weight into a game. Giving people small cards, it challenges them to tap the cards on to contactless boxes distributed across Swindon and spaced at half-a-mile apart in return for points.

Called Beat the Street, it has already been tested in Sussex, Gloucester and Reading. It will be launched in Swindon on September 3, funded by the National Lottery and Sport England.

Cherry Jones, director of public health for Swindon Borough Council, said: “Beat the Street will look to work with about 10 per cent of our population through an app. That’s about 20,000 people in Swindon who will hopefully become a little bit more physically active.”

Cards will be available from libraries and supermarkets around the town, as well as from Great Western Hospital. The game will last six weeks, from September 12 to October 24.

The council already funds smaller-scale fitness projects, such as the Football Fans in Training scheme run with Swindon Town Football in the Community Trust.

But Coun Brian Ford, lead member for health and social care, told the borough’s scrutiny committee that the programmes only had a limited impact: “A lot of our prevention programmes that we have out there are doing a fantastic job for the individuals they are serving, but it isn’t enough people.”

Official figures show around two thirds of Swindon adults are obese or overweight. A third of the town’s 10 and 11-year-olds are considered obese or overweight, according to Public Health England.

Coun Ford said there needed to be a complete change in people’s attitudes. Comparing obesity to smoking, he told councillors: “25 or 30 years ago it was acceptable to smoke in fact if you didn’t smoke it was not acceptable in some areas. We’ve had a huge change in public attitude.

“The only way we’re going to get to where we want to be on obesity – we can nibble at it, which is what we’re doing – but the only way is by a complete change of attitude.

“We will try and change that attitude in Swindon as much as we possibly can.

“I’ve now become really boring on this. We need everybody to send this message. We need everything we can to get the message out there.”

Public health chief Cherry Jones said the council was focussed on prevention campaigns, building on national lifestyle change programmes like Change4Life. She added: “We are endeavouring to do more things at scale, but that’s quite challenging.”

Coun Bob Wright, chairman of the borough scrutiny committee, blasted pharmaceutical and food companies for not doing more to prevent lifestyle-linked conditions like Type 2 Diabetes: “The pharmaceutical industry always wants to treat the symptoms not the cause.”

Beat the Street will be launched from September 3. Cards are available from public libraries and some supermarkets. For more, visit: beatthestreet.me/swindon.