27 free drop-in blood pressure checks run at 20 Warrington venues from Monday 7 to Friday 11 September. No appointment needed: every venue, day and time listed.

Free blood pressure checks are running at 20 venues across the borough this week, with no appointment needed. Warrington Borough Council has published 27 separate drop-in sessions, from Westy and Whitecross to Lymm, Culcheth, Winwick and Stockton Heath. (Warrington Borough Council)

One detail the council’s own listing does not spell out. Know Your Numbers Week runs from Monday 7 to Sunday 13 September, but every Warrington session falls on a weekday. The last one finishes at 1pm on Friday 11 September. If you work Monday to Friday, the sessions at Warrington Market, Birchwood Shopping Centre and the Living Well Bus are the ones that fit around a lunch break, and Great Sankey is the only evening slot in the borough. (Blood Pressure UK)

Every session, day by day

Each check is free, takes a few minutes and needs no appointment.

Monday 7 September

  • Fearnhead Cross Community Centre, Insall Road, WA2 0HD, 10am to 4pm
  • Greenwood Community Centre, Meteor Crescent, WA2 0DU, 10am to 3pm
  • Westy Community Centre, Bridgewater Avenue, WA4 1TA, 10.30am to 12.30pm

Tuesday 8 September

  • Fearnhead Cross Community Centre, Insall Road, WA2 0HD, 9am to 4pm
  • Warrington Market, 2 Time Square, WA1 2NT, 10am to 12pm
  • Greenwood Community Centre, Meteor Crescent, WA2 0DU, 10am to 1pm
  • Orford Community Hub, 102 Hughes Avenue, WA2 9EW, 12pm to 3pm
  • Greenwood Community Centre, Meteor Crescent, WA2 0DU, 12pm to 3pm
  • Great Sankey Neighbourhood Hub, Lingley Green Avenue, WA5 3AA, 5pm to 7pm

Wednesday 9 September

  • Whitecross Community Centre, Lexden Street, WA5 1PT, 9am to 4pm
  • Culcheth Community Centre, 2 Jackson Avenue, WA3 4EL, 9am to 4pm
  • Fearnhead Cross Community Centre, Insall Road, WA2 0HD, 9am to 12pm
  • Greenwood Community Centre, Meteor Crescent, WA2 0DU, 9.30am to 11am
  • Birchwood Shopping Centre, Dewhurst Road, WA3 7PG, 1pm to 3pm

Thursday 10 September

  • Tinsley Street Family Hub, Latchford East, WA4 1RE, 8.30am to 9.30am
  • Orford Jubilee Neighbourhood Hub, Jubilee Way, WA2 8HE, 9am to 12pm
  • Living Well Hub, 26-30 Horsemarket Street, WA1 1XL, 9.30am to 12pm
  • Warrington Hospital information desk, Lovely Lane, WA5 1QG, 10am to 1pm
  • Lymm Sanctuary Cafe, 1 Brookfield Road, Lymm, WA13 0QL, 10am to 12pm
  • Living Well Bus at Wickes, Pinners Brow Retail Park, WA2 2XA, 10.30am to 4pm
  • Winwick Community Centre, Myddleton Lane, WA2 8LQ, 10.30am to 12.30pm
  • Warrington Market, 2 Time Square, WA1 2NT, 2pm to 4pm

Friday 11 September

  • Boulting Avenue Family Hub, Boulting Avenue, WA5 0JG, 8.30am to 10am
  • Culcheth Community Centre, 2 Jackson Avenue, WA3 4EL, 9am to 1pm
  • Oughtrington Community Centre, 1 Oughtrington Crescent, WA13 9JD, 10am to 12pm
  • Stockton Heath Library, Alexandra Park, Alexandra Road, WA4 2AN, 10.15am to 1pm
  • St Elphin’s Community Centre, St Katherine’s Way, WA1 2EG, 12pm to 1pm

Two notes on the council’s list. Greenwood Community Centre appears twice on Tuesday, at 10am to 1pm and again at 12pm to 3pm, so the hours there overlap. Thursday is by far the busiest day, with eight sessions, and Warrington Hospital and the Living Well Bus both appear only on that day.

What the borough’s own health record shows

The council says one in three people in Warrington could be living with undiagnosed high blood pressure. That figure is worth reading carefully. Blood Pressure UK, which runs the campaign, puts it slightly differently: around a third of people in the UK have high blood pressure, and most of them do not know it. Neither is a Warrington measurement.

The number that is a Warrington measurement comes from GP records. In 2024/25, 37,842 people in the borough were on their GP’s hypertension register, which is 16.4% of the registered population. That is above the England figure of 15.2% and above the North West’s 16.0%, and the gap with England is wide enough to be statistically significant. (Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, from the Quality and Outcomes Framework)

It has also been climbing fast. In 2012/13 the Warrington rate was 13.5%. It moved by less than a percentage point over the following nine years. Then it jumped, from 14.4% in 2021/22 to 16.4% in 2024/25. In headcount that is 5,565 more Warrington patients diagnosed with high blood pressure in three years.

Line chart of recorded hypertension prevalence in Warrington from 13.5 per cent in 2012/13 to 16.4 per cent in 2024/25, with the England figure of 15.2 per cent marked for 2024/25.
Share of Warrington's GP-registered population on a hypertension register, 2012/13 to 2024/25. Source: OHID public health profiles, from the Quality and Outcomes Framework.

A rising register is not straightforwardly bad news. It counts people who have been found and are being treated, not people who are ill and untreated. The point of a week like this one is to move people out of the undiagnosed group and into that count.

Warrington sits below its immediate neighbours on the same measure. Wigan recorded 18.0% in 2024/25, Halton 17.7%, Cheshire East 17.3% and Cheshire West and Chester 17.0%. Trafford, at 15.1%, was the only nearby authority lower than Warrington.

Cllr Tony Higgins, cabinet member for health, wellbeing and social care, said: “Whether you are 20 or 80 years old, you could be living with undiagnosed high blood pressure, so please take the opportunity to get checked.”

What it means for you

  • Just turn up. No appointment, no booking, no charge. A check takes a few minutes.
  • Nothing runs at the weekend. The last Warrington session ends at 1pm on Friday 11 September, two days before the national week closes.
  • Only one evening session. Great Sankey Neighbourhood Hub, Tuesday 8 September, 5pm to 7pm.
  • If you miss the week, checks are available at most pharmacies year-round, and adults aged 40 to 74 can get one through an NHS Health Check at their GP surgery. (NHS)
  • Home monitors start at around £20, the council says, at pharmacies and online.
  • High blood pressure usually has no symptoms. That is the whole argument for testing rather than waiting to feel unwell. (NHS)

Getting to a session is the practical bit. Our roadworks and travel page tracks what is shut this week, including the A57 Pink Eye works near Warrington Hospital, and parking in Warrington covers the town centre car parks nearest Warrington Market and the Living Well Hub on Horsemarket Street.

If you run a community group that would like a session, or you went to one this week and want to tell us how it went, we would like to hear from you: hello@warringtonwire.co.uk.