A councillor has been awarded a national walking award for a walking program created to tackle physical and mental health while promoting inclusion for BAME women.

Blackburn with Darwen Cllr Mustafa Desai has been awarded the national Charles Maher Award – Walking Champion 2021 by Living Streets.

Cllr Mustafa Desai was nominated for setting up the Take A Hike programme, which uses walking to tackle physical and mental health challenges, while promoting inclusion for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) women and enabling people to connect with the great outdoors.

The award recognises a local group or individual who has gone the extra mile to improve their local community and was set up in honour of Charles Maher, a campaigner and long-standing supporter of the charity.

Cllr Mustafa Desai added: "With Covid, I thought the mental health issue would be very high on the agenda which it is.

"What this does is - a lot of ladies have gone through the Covid fatigue and gone through the isolation and not being able to meet family.

"This has provided an option for them to come out as a Covid secure group and get out there interacting with other people - friends and family.

"People have taken initiative to take the walks and do them with their own family so it has gained a lot of momentum."

Cllr Desai said that he started walking about six years ago after a health concern.

Since starting the group, they have walked all over the county from Rivington Pike to Pendle Hill to the woods in Hurst Green and member said it has helped them see the county "in a new way"

This year, Living Streets received a record number of 69 nominations which were shortlisted down to eight for the charity's members to vote on.

All the candidates had made streets safer and cleaner, promoted inclusion, pioneered low traffic solutions, demonstrated creativity and innovation and used walking to tackle to the pressures of the coronavirus pandemic.