Health ministers see healthy new green initiative
at work

January 2006

Health ministers Caroline Flint and Rosie Winterton paid a fact-finding visit to an allotments site in Doncaster to see how a green project is helping local people become fit and active by getting close to nature.

The ministers stopped off at Broomhouse Lane allotments, Balby, where volunteers guided by staff from the Doncaster Green Gym initiative are turning an overgrown section of the site into a community plot where they will be able to grow their own produce.

Launched a year ago, the Green Gym project is run by Doncaster's primary care trusts in partnership with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BCTV. It gives people the opportunity to turn to nature for a healthy work out by taking part in conservation and maintenance work at various sites across the borough.

Since starting out, Doncaster Green Gym volunteers have been involved in a range of activities, including willow coppicing at Bentley Community Woodland and step and bench maintenance at Thorne's Buntings Wood.

Caroline and Rosie met learning disability volunteers from social education centres at Conisbrough and Thorne who have spent the past few months hacking back 12' high brambles and tidying up the 600 square yards plot that has been loaned to Green Gym by Broomhouse Lane Allotments Society.

Green Gym Project Officer Toya Smith, a qualified gym and aerobics instructor who works for Doncaster East Primary Care Trust, said getting involved in Green Gym activities is an ideal way to introduce people to exercise who may want to escape the usual gym or swim health regime.

She said: "You don't need any equipment, we provide it all and refreshments as well. You can work at your own pace and build up your fitness as you go along and it is something the whole family can do together. All you need is sturdy footwear and some old clothes."

All the sessions are free, designed to raise fitness levels and open to people of all ages and abilities. Before doing any work, volunteers do a series of warm-up stretches to prevent muscle strain and injury, followed by warm-down exercises when they have finished.

Doncaster Green Gym is part of the Doncaster Healthy Living Project and funded by Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, the Big Lottery Fund and South Yorkshire Communities Health Action Zone.