Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1474369
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 JULY 2022 12 COMMERCIAL THE highly successful 'Healthy Cities' project, which is part of the EU's URBACT programme has recently drawn to an end with participating partners, in- cluding the Planning Authority (PA) having shared, learnt and identified good practices which will serve to improve urban pol- icies in relation to health. The partner cities in this pro- ject led by the Municipality of Vic (Spain) included Pärnu (Estonia), Farkadona (Greece), Anyksciai (Lithuania), Alphen aan den Rijn (Holland), Bradford (England) and Loulé (Portu- gal) and the Planning Authority (Malta). Set up 3 years ago, this Action Planning network came together to explore and discuss the rela- tionship between health and the urban environment and iden- tify planning actions that focus on improving the population's health. The largest challenge faced by the network was, unsurprisingly, COVID-19. Although restric- tions on movement and social activity slowed progress down in all kinds of work across the globe, the challenge was even greater when the type of work the network was focused on re- lated to collaboration and stake- holder engagement. The silver lining is that the pandemic brought health into conversations across the board. As the world emerges from this crisis, support for health initi- atives is stronger than before. When one is locked down in a city, they feel the impact of their urban environment far more strongly. Lacking nearby amen- ities and green spaces and being unable to cycle or go for a walk due to surrounding infrastruc- ture makes the issue of urban planning for health far more tangible and personal for many people, building support for the kind of work pursued by Healthy Cities. Through this project, the Plan- ning Authority (PA) in collab- oration with the Senglea Local Council and the Ministry for Health and Local Government Division launched a smartphone app - Healthy Cities Malta, which combines the need for physical activity and a healthi- er lifestyle with interesting and important landmarks within the city. The Healthy Cities Malta app, which can be downloaded free of charge from the Play Store, provides the user with options of different walking routes, each with different levels of difficulty, within the city and recommends additional physical exercises that can be carried out at cer- tain spots along the route. So when the user is close to one of the city's many stepped-streets, they are encouraged to carry out a short work-out of 'step lunges'; while when in the Gardjola Gar- den 'press-ups' against one of the benches are recommended. All workout exercises come with in- structions on posture and safety. The app also gives the user the number of calories they lost after following a particular route. In their concluding meeting, held in the Portuguese City of Loulé, the partners looked back at their projects and cited lessons learnt and also heard suggestions from partners and talked about the future pros- pects and the paths lying ahead. Lead expert on the project, Se- bastiaan van Herk, praised what he saw in Loulé "It is an example of two things: how to combine investment in infrastructure with social and sports activities, making people really use the spaces. It is also an example of the unique way in which a mu- nicipality works with all its as- sociations and clubs. I've been working on urban projects for 20 years and I've never seen any city work like this," he underlined. Clémentine Gravier, from UR- BACT, confided that many of the network's partners have al- ready expressed an interest in continuing and building on past URBACT projects. "Although the project has now come to an end, it will be useful to continue to prioritise health through sports and I, for one, will encourage partners to work on a similar networks to initiate further and new collaborations, where new opportunities can be explored and best practices shared with other countries." she said. Healthy Cities project draws to an end… but with new beginnings