Have your say on Luton’s sport and activity strategy

The second phase of a public consultation inviting residents to give their final views on the proposed Sport and Physical Activity Strategy has begun.

Feedback to Luton council from the first phase consultation highlighted a number of barriers that were preventing residents from being active including: cost, motivation and accessibility. It also identified opportunities to help local people become more physically active such as improving safety, reducing litter and enhancing activities available in local parks and greenspaces.

The majority of those who responded agreed with the proposed strategy of making people more active through creating environments and societies which encourage engagement with sports and physical activities.

To reflect this, the second phase of the consultation will focus on three priority themes:

>Create active people – develop opportunities to help individuals get more active

>Create active environments – identify how people travel around Luton and how we can encourage physical activity

>Create active societies – help people to understand why it is important to be active

The strategy will set out the council’s priorities and will aim to improve physical activity participation, while reducing inequalities in activity levels.

Views and comments received during the consultation will be used to finalise the Sport and Physical Activity Strategy. The consultation will run to December 4. The final strategy will be considered by the council’s Executive and if approved, will be adopted in early 2024.

Councillor Khtija Malik, portfolio holder for public health and wellbeing said: “We are committed to providing the right opportunities to help our residents, regardless of their backgrounds, to become more active.

“We received valuable feedback from our phase one consultation which gave us a better understanding of the challenges people face and what we can put in place to make it easier, better and safer for our residents to improve their activity levels. We have listened to their views and have amended the sport and physical activity accordingly.

“To create the most effective strategy we need residents, children and young people and organisations to give us their final views, it really will make a big difference.”

Visit https://engage.luton.gov.uk/ to find out more and to complete an online survey.