Churches in Portsmouth have teamed up to launch an app that seeks to encourage people to pray for the city as they go on their daily walks. 

The "Pray up Pompey" app, a reference to the football chant "Play Up Pompey", features all 1,300 streets of Portsmouth, with each turning from blue to gold when they are prayed for. 

Speaking to Premier, one of the leaders behind the project, Revd Tracey Ansell from the North End Baptist Church, said the idea originally from Mark Darcey, the leader of House of Prayer Portsmouth, and had been in the works for some years now. 

"He had this idea of all of the churches and all Christians coming together for one month, to pray for every street together. We thought that was quite complex, to try and get everybody that coordinated. So, the idea grew, and out of that we came up with this idea of a year-long programme where Christians could go out and pray for the streets of Portsmouth," she said. 

"We then discovered that Coventry has done something very similar with Open Heaven where they've developed an app. So, we spoke to them and we've worked with them to develop this app for Portsmouth," she continued. 

Users can reserve the street they want to walk through and mark them as "prayed for" which changes the street colour from blue to gold in the app. 

"I just love the idea that at the end of the year, we're hoping we'll have prayed for about 1,300 streets in Portsmouth, that all of the streets in Portsmouth on this map will have been turned to gold because of Christians praying for the Holy Spirit to come and work across the city," Revd Tracey added. 

For Good Friday, organisers are encouraging Christians to either walk, run or cycle the perimeter of the city to "encapsulate the whole city in prayer". 

Similar initiatives are taking place in Sheffield and Coventry. 

To download the app click here.