Please don't be misled by the odd
sporting
Blog entry; as I am no
athlete. A 22 stone book reading, typing, arty guy
and poet, that's me. Now don't get me wrong, I am capable of working out,
but of course it's a struggle. It's a struggle to find the money to pay
to run the car, and a struggle to pay the astronomical fuel costs of living in
a rural location in order to get that car to and from the village and into the Sports Centre.
This is where sensible strategic
investment in infrastructure will pay dividends for the NHS by helping people
to help themselves. This is especially so,
when we consider the inspirational performance of Bradley Wiggins over the last
few weeks. It’s not the effort of one ‘Tour’
but the culmination of years of physical activity and dedication. Becoming the first British citizen to win the
Tour de France is inspirational. But
little steps and all of that are of course the important part of the aftermath
of the Bradley Wiggins astonishing win 109 years after the Tour de France annual
event began. More so in that this is the
year of the London Olympics and the fantastic performance on Andy Murray at
Wimbledon. It's all inspirational, albeit the success of Bradley Wiggins is more inspirational than the rest. Oh by the way, I'm not a cyclist, as it's not safe to cycle much around here.
But however good the top people
are, the little people, or in my case the big people, are limited by poor
infrastructure. You can’t walk about if
there are no pavements, and you can’t cycle if there is a serious likelihood of
being killed and a serious absence of safe cycle routes. This of course is where
the strategic investment in infrastructure comes into place.
Please don’t bother building this and that stadium
or this or that running track as it's pointless in terms of mobility and national health. Instead, we need to link villages to town centres with pavements that can
double up as a safer cycling route. The oportunity for safe increased mobility means that the
health of the nation will steadily improve, and of course those that are do more
exercise will inevitably start taking up sporting activities. Increased mobility will will increase the pool and lead to more future sporting stars.
The problem is that those who run
the place tend to think too BIG.
Less mobility,
poor public transport, high fuel costs, higher fuel costs in the country, less
to do, less mobility.
It’s a vicious
circle, but one that can be broken if we rethink the strategic direction. Pavements, more pavements, any quality
pavements, lots of pavements, linking pavements, and even more pavements.
Pavements allow activity that improves health
and reduces road deaths and reduces dependence on the NHS while improving mental health. You can dress it up any way
that you want, but the reality is, it all boils down to the need for pavements
linking communities that allow walking and cycling and thereby encourages people
to get out and about in order to safely reach a destination that may be a
mountain walk, a shopping centre, or whatever.
All we need is a long term strategic investment in infrastructure i.e. pavements. It's sort of like the 'plant a tree' theme, but in this case it's more of 'lets lay a few kerbstones, chuck on some hardcore, tamp it down, and spread over some tarmac, and then add a few lines and words such as cycle path'. Now this would be a legacy fitting of the astonishing and inspirational success of Bradley Wiggins in the 2012 Tour de France.
It’s not rocket science; so can
someone in charge please start getting it right?
