Could west Dorset be the home of Britain’s best walking neighbourhood?

Walking charity Ramblers is searching for the places that put pedestrians first and lead the way in enabling residents to walk every day and calling on people in west Dorset to nominate their area for the Britain’s Best Neighbourhood Award.

The award celebrates local authorities, developers, individuals and communities that have made positive changes to help make neighbourhoods more walkable – from making routes and public spaces greener, to building mixed-use developments that encourage active travel, to improving the way local streets connect people to the places they want to go.

Vanessa Griffiths, Ramblers chief executive, said: “We have a vision of a country designed for walking, in the open countryside, and close to where we all live and work.

“By making it easy for people to walk their everyday local journeys, we help them live more active, healthier lives. Not only that, we help tackle some of society’s biggest problems including growing levels of obesity, social isolation, congestion and air pollution.

“Sadly, for many of us the areas we live in have been designed to favour cars rather than people, making walking unsafe, or unpleasant.

“With this award, we want to highlight the places and people already doing a great job to make walking easier in their local neighbourhoods.

“We also want to encourage others to think about the small changes they could make to improve the walkability of their neighbourhoods and health and wellbeing of their residents, while creating more vibrant communities.

“The majority of us live in built-up areas and evidence shows that communities highly value green spaces and routes in their neighbourhood and hugely benefit from having regular contact with the natural environment.

“We are keen to hear about neighbourhoods that have improved or created new green routes, spaces or features, because we know that these make neighbourhoods more appealing for walking, whether it is for leisure or as a means of getting from A to B.”

For more information and to nominate your neighbourhood, visit www.ramblers.org.uk