From couch potatoes to Pokémon masters

Howard Sykes

THE Pokémon Go craze could be used to get people out of their homes and get fitter.

Councillor Howard Sykes asked council leader Jean Stretton what Oldham Council could be doing to utilise the game to promote physical exercise.

Pokémon Go is a free-to-play location-based augmented reality mobile phone game, which uses a phone's camera and GPS to allow a player to capture, train and battle virtual creatures.

The Pokémon appear on the mobile device screens, as though they were in the real world.

Councillor Howard Sykes said: "There is already some evidence of previous couch potatoes, or those holed up in their bedrooms playing 'Call of Duty' on Xbox or Playstation, now walking and/or running around outside as they hunt Pokémon Go.

"Given the potential, I would like to ask the leader what this council is doing to harness the idea and whether we can work with our youth council to develop innovative ways in which we can use the power of this technology to connect our youngest residents with our public services."

Committed
Councillor Stretton said: "I have to confess I haven't caught any Pokémon Go monsters yet.

"It is absolutely worth pursuing. There are officers in our comms team who are in to their tech stuff.

"I'm sure they would be more than happy to work with anybody in this chamber and the youth council on this. I will be committed to us doing that."

The news comes after it was revealed that Oldham was ranked 141st out of 150 local authorities researched in terms of rates of physical activity in 2013.

UKActives Turning The Tide of Inactivity report estimates that this lack of regular exercise by the Oldham population is estimated to cost the Oldham economy £53.5million a year.

At last night's meeting, councillors fully supported Eddie Moores' motion for the council to give its support to the Greater Manchester Moving Strategy and instruct the relevant officers to develop an action plan to detail how the pledges will be developed and implemented in the borough.

The Moving Strategy was published in 2015 and provides the blueprint for physical activity and sport's contribution to the overall Greater Manchester Strategy.