RESIDENTS of an area where people are significantly more likely to die before they reach 75 are being challenged to join a community-wide drive to improve fitness.

Haughton and Springfield councillor Chris McEwan said while Darlington Borough Council and local NHS initiatives were helping improve the health of residents across the borough, extra action was needed to tackle the issue in the ward.

A report for the ward for 2018 produced by Public Health England found while life expectancy in England for women was 83.1 years, in Darlington it was 82.2 years, but in Haughton and Springfield it was just 78.9 years – more than four years less than the country’s average. For men life expectancy stood at 77.4 years in the ward compared to 79.5 years across England.

The report also found 24.9 per cent of residents in the ward had a limiting long-term illness or disability compared to 19.6 per cent across Darlington and 17.6 per cent in England.

It found the ward also fared poorly over emergency hospital admissions, hospital stays for alcohol harm, the proportion of people with lung cancer and preventable deaths.

Speaking ahead of the first Health in Haughton Matters activity on Saturday, Cllr McEwan, who is working with residents associations on the scheme, said a greater range of approaches was needed to get to grips with the situation.

He said: “Obviously we can’t solve everything, but we have reached a point when we have got to take a stand. It might only engage 100 people at first and we know we’re not going to change things overnight, but moving for 30 minutes a day can have quite a major impact on your health and wellbeing.”

Cllr McEwan said he hoped the initiative, which has received £5,000 funding from the County Durham Community Foundation, would inspire other schemes elsewhere in the borough. The programme’s activities include family events, such as orienteering around Rockwell Nature Reserve and archery, as well as one-hour walks around the ward, chair-based exercise and a group aiming to enable people to move from their couch to running 5km.

For details, visit facebook.com/HaughtonMatters