 Win prizes during National Walking Month
If you want to keep active and do your bit for climate change, you can take part in National Walking Month, a campaign to encourage people to ditch the car and start walking more this May.
Walking helps to improve your health, protect the environment and saves money on transportation. It can also lift your mood and help you connect with nature.
Our My Journey Team is running a series of challenges this month where you can win daily prizes and medals by tracking your steps on a free, easy-to-use smartphone app.
BetterPoints, previously known as Innovation Valley Rewards, tracks your activities automatically and rewards you for making greener and healthier travel choices including cycling or taking public transport.
This month's challenges include:
- 1 to 10 May - walk or wheel for 10 minutes every day to enter a daily prize draw for 10,000 BetterPoints, which can be exchanged for £10 in high street gift vouchers or a charity donation
- 11 to 20 May - walk or wheel for 20 minutes every day to enter a daily draw for 20,000 BetterPoints, which can be exchanged for £20 in high street gift vouchers or a charity donation
- 21 to 31 May - walk or wheel for half an hour every day to enter a daily draw for 30,000 BetterPoints, which can be exchanged for £30 in high street gift vouchers or a charity donation
If you refer a friend, family or colleague, you can enter the weekly draw to win 50,000 BetterPoints. You can also earn extra rewards during Walk to School Week (15 to 19 May).
To find out more, visit the My Journey website or download the free Betterpoints app for Apple or Android devices.
 Let it grow! Take part in No Mow May
If you want to help wildlife in your garden, you can take part in No Mow May, a campaign to encourage people not to cut their grass this month. Anyone with a patch of land can take part.
By taking part, you can help to lock away atmospheric carbon below the ground. It also helps biodiversity flourish by letting wild flowers bloom, providing nectar for pollinating insects such as bees, butterflies, moths and beetles. So sit back and watch the wild flowers grow.
At the council, our grass cutting cycle for most of our verges and informal open spaces is more than four weeks between cuts, and even less frequent in our rural verges. This allows smaller plants such as daisies and birds-foot-trefoil to flower, providing a food source for bees, butterflies and other invertebrates.
In our larger open spaces where we have a more frequent need to cut the grass, such as football pitches, we will often have designated areas of long grass which is cut annually, helping to provide food and shelter for wildlife.
Tell us if you're taking part in No Mow May by emailing our Climate Emergency team.
 Cycle around the borough and win prizes this May
Cyclists of all ages and backgrounds can celebrate the start of sunnier weather by taking part in this year's Love to Ride Bike Month Challenge.
The event, which we support, runs throughout May and encourages both individuals and workplaces to saddle up, have fun and hopefully win prizes.
Registration is free and all rides, which can easily be logged online or recorded automatically through an app, only needs to be 10 minutes or longer to count.
There are many benefits of cycling including improving your health and mental well-being, whilst also reducing air and noise pollution. Cycling is better for you and the planet.
The more you ride, the more entries you’ll get into a draw with prizes including £2,000 and smaller cash amounts, gift cards and cycling gear as well as “early bird” rewards.
Love to Ride runs all year round and our borough's 2,533 riders have logged 2,110,816 miles across 17,506 individual trips - with more than 500,000 miles in the past 12 months.
After taking part in last year's Love to Ride Cycle September challenge, a Wokingham Borough resident won the top prize of a £2,500 Raleigh electric bike.
To take part, register on the Love to Ride website.
 School plants 2,000 trees creating a Miyawaki forest
Shinfield St Mary's Church of England Junior School has planted an incredible 2,000 trees, creating a Japanese Miyawaki Forest. This will help sequester carbon emissions as trees absorb carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change.
The Miyawaki method mimics the way a forest would recolonise itself if humans stepped away. It involves careful soil preparation and densely planting a range of native woodland plants which are beneficial to wildlife, boosting biodiversity.
The new Miyawaki Forest at the school is roughly the size of a tennis court and around 360 children and 100 adults helped plant the trees. 1,800 trees were sourced from The Tree Council, 420 from The Woodland Trust and a few apple and pear trees from Freely Fruity based in Wokingham.
Trees provide clean air, offer shelter for wildlife, prevent flooding, store carbon and support biodiversity by keeping the soil nutrient-rich. They also help to improve the mental health and wellbeing of people, particularly when walking, cycling or exercising outdoors.
Photo credit: Reading Drones.
 Free trial - electric bicycle hire for businesses
Businesses in Wokingham Borough, especially those carrying out multiple short trips, have the chance to try doing their deliveries on a special electric bicycle instead of driving.
My Journey Wokingham, our active travel team, has taken delivery of two Urban Arrow e-cargo bikes and want to loan them out free of charge on a trial basis for periods of either two or four weeks.
These Urban Arrow models can carry between 300 and 600 litres of cargo and have a range of up to 45 miles, with a top assisted speed of just over 15mph, so can replace small delivery vehicles in many cases.
They have a lockable storage box attached and can be charged from the mains in about three hours. They offer a more convenient way for couriers to travel, with less waiting in traffic, and help businesses stand out from the crowd with their unique appearance.
They don't emit carbon dioxide or other air pollutants, making them far more environmentally friendly, while the electric motor ensures trips require less pedalling than a regular bike.
If you want to find out more or enquire about hiring, email the My Journey Team at myjourney@wokingham.gov.uk
 New woodland to commemorate Covid losses
We’ve agreed to plant a commemorative woodland honouring those who lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic at Rooks Nest Farm in Finchampstead, with work hopefully starting in September and finishing in early 2024.
The 7.7-hectare plot at the site’s south-eastern corner would become an extension of California Country Park to the south. It would be planted with about 6,600 native trees, plus additional wildflower seeding.
A sculpture or other memorial would be installed with two benches and footpaths, and the site would be in easy reach of our traffic-free greenway from Arborfield Green to Finchampstead which runs along the southern edge.
The scheme would count towards our goals to help the borough achieve carbon neutral status by 2030, meet international Tree Cities of the World standards and convert 170 hectares of land to new woodland, hedgerows and orchards.
It will offer a richer habitat for local wildlife, improve air quality by absorbing pollutants and reduce the flood risk by soaking up water. Find out more about our countryside sites, including our country parks and nature parks.
 Ditch the car and hop on a bus for just £2
Are you planning to travel locally this spring or early in the summer? Don't forget that single bus fares are capped at a maximum of £2 until 30 June.
This scheme, funded by the Government, applies to Reading Buses, Thames Valley Buses and Arriva services.
We encourage you to give it a try, not only will you be supporting our local bus companies but it's healthier and better for the environment as it cuts down on the amount of vehicles using our roads, helping to decrease the amount of greenhouse gas emissions entering the atmosphere.
You can read more on the Thames Valley Buses website, Reading Buses website and Arriva Bus website.
Find out more about walking, cycling and public transport in Wokingham Borough from our My Journey Wokingham team.
 Constructively challenge the climate work we do
The Climate Emergency Overview and Scrutiny Committee is set up to scrutinise our Climate Emergency Action Plan and reports to the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee.
The committee meets every two months and offers the opportunity for residents to have their say, ask questions and constructively challenge and work with our Executive and other public service providers.
To find out more visit our website or to send a question, email Democratic Services at democratic.services@wokingham.gov.uk
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