WALKING all or part of your journey to work is an excellent way to get some activity into your day and does wonders for your mental and physical health.

If that isn’t incentive enough, Peterborough City Council is offering prizes of an iPod and a meal for two in a competition aimed at encouraging people to leave their cars at home during Walk to Work Week between April 27 and May 1, 2009.

The Travelchoice competition challenges employees across the city to leave their cars at home and record how many miles they walk on specially-designed scorecards, which can be downloaded from www.travelchoice.org.uk.

At the end of the week, employees will hand their scorecards to their organisation’s travel plan co-ordinator, who will submit the scores to Travelchoice.

Prizes include an iPod for the person who walks the furthest, a meal for two for the co-ordinator who submits the most scorecards, a choice of topical books for three prize draw winners and a buffet meal for the company whose staff walk the furthest.

Michael Carter, workplace travel plan officer for Peterborough City Council, said: “Peterborough aspires to be the UK’s Environment Capital, and reducing car use is key goal.

“Walking is not only an environmentally-friendly way of getting to and from work, but also a free and easy way to include more exercise into your daily routine. When better to start a new healthy regime than during Walk to Work Week?”

Government statistics show that more than 27 million adults in England are not getting enough exercise.

Some people may find walking alone a lonely or even intimidating experience, but there is a solution. By logging on to www.carsharepeterborough.com people can get in contact with others who use similar routes arrange to walk together. The site also enables visitors to find car share, cycling and taxi share partners. Why not visit the site and see if anyone else is going the same way?