As the light went down, the square filled. Instructors led an hour of low-impact dance fitness set to a live selector, with the front rows given over to first-timers who had never joined a class before. By the second track the space between the benches had disappeared.

Evening Moves runs on a simple premise: the biggest barrier to physical activity is rarely willingness. It is time, cost, transport, childcare, and the quiet worry about turning up somewhere new and being the least fit person in the room. Remove those, and attendance takes care of itself.

Nothing to book, nothing to bring

The sessions are deliberately unticketed and unbooked. Residents can arrive in whatever they are wearing, stay for ten minutes or the full hour, and leave without signing anything. There is no register, no membership, and no photograph taken unless someone asks for one.

That informality has proved more effective at drawing new participants than any advertising the Unit has run. People who would not sign up for a six-week programme will happily stop on their way home when they can hear the music from the road.

Instructors are asked to teach to the back of the room rather than the front — to the person following at half speed, not the one who already knows the routine. Every movement is offered in a lower-impact version, and the warm-up is long enough that arriving late is not a problem.

Screening alongside the class

Blood pressure and glucose screening ran in a marked-off area at the edge of the square, staffed for the whole session. Anyone whose readings warranted follow-up was referred on the spot, with an appointment made before they left rather than a leaflet handed over.

Pairing screening with an activity session reaches people who would not otherwise attend a health centre — particularly men, who are consistently under-represented in routine screening across the region. Several of those referred had not had their blood pressure taken in more than two years.

What happens next

Evening Moves will run monthly through the rest of the year, rotating between locations so that no community has to travel far to reach one. Parish teams are being trained to run their own sessions, with the Unit providing the equipment and the instructor stipend for the first six months.

The measure of success is not the size of the crowd on the night. It is whether the people who came for the first time come back a second time, and whether the walking groups and stairwell challenges that follow a session are still running three months later.