Cars are bad for our health...

But walking is good for you!

On Thursday I made my first intervention at a Council Meeting.

It was a piece of ‘housekeeping’ rather than a set piece speech, so was not a particularly daunting experience.

My comments were made during the adoption of the 2013 Annual Public Health Report which this year focusses on how travel policy can be set with a view to improving public health. 

The encouragement of walking and cycling, rather than the use of private cars, is behind many of the report’s recommendations.  Anyone who spends any time around Suffolk schools at dropping off and picking up time would probably sign up to that idea.  Encouraging the use of public transport is another, (although that rings rather hollow given the recent cutbacks in bus timetables across the county.)

Speaking frankly,  I found the tone of parts of the report rather patronising and dictatorial.  I am happy to encourage people to change their behaviour, and no one can argue with trying to improve people’s health and wellbeing.   The libertarian within me however draws the line at preachy holier than thou dictats that are reminiscent of totalitarianism.  The report also has an urban slant which overlooks the 30 percent of Suffolk’s people who live in rural areas.

Probably because I am something of a coward, my intervention in the debate had nothing to do with this ideological unease however.  The Report has generated ten ‘ideas’  and the paper proposed that the Health and Adult Care Panel, of which I am the Chairman,  takes time to prioritise and reality test these  before they go to Cabinet in the new year.    The Panel was asked at its first meeting two weeks ago whether this was a piece of work that we would like to do, and at the Council meeting I expressed our enthusiasm for doing so, and spoke about how we would go about the task.  Nothing very controversial there…..

The report emphasises the huge footpath network that we have in Suffolk.  We have 3400 miles of footpaths, bridleways and byways apparently.   As I was fighting my way along an overgrown public footpath this morning I felt that one easy win would be to get back to the position a few years ago where the County Council actually looked after our footpaths properly.  Strangely this does not seem to be one of the ‘ideas’ recommended by the report.

The Annual Public Health Report for Suffolk 2013 can be accessed by clicking the link here