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London 2012 Olympic Stadium (copyright Simon MacMichael)How active are people where you live? Report ranks local authorities by residents' activity levels
Newham, the London borough that was at the centre of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, has the highest levels of inactivity in England, according to a new report. In response, its council has made a tenfold increase in spending to combat the issue, says the report which ranks 150 local authorities by their residents' levels of inactivity.
The report, called Steps to Solving Inactivity, has been published by the not-for-profit public health body ukactive. It found that nationally, 29% of people living in England are classified as being physically inactive, meaning they do less than 30 minutes of moderate exercise, such as cycling or fast walking, a week.
In response to what ukactive describes as the country’s “inactivity epidemic,” it found councils are doubling the level of public health grant allocated to the issue, from an average of 2 per cent to 4 per cent.
It says that the increased investment reflects a willingness to address the issue, which its first report on the subject, published last year, said was linked to one in six premature deaths.
Seven in ten local authorities have increased spend in this area for 2014/15, and Newham is among those that have seen the biggest jump.
The borough, home to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and ExCel London, which together hosted more than half of the 26 Olympic sports at London 2012, was found to have 39 per cent of people living there ranked as inactive.
In response, its investment to combat inactivity has risen tenfold from £216,000 in 2013/14 to £2.1 million this year, says ukactive, making up 15.6 per cent of its public health budget.
Two other London boroughs, neighbouring Barking & Redbridge and Enfield, which lies further up the River Lea from Newham, are among the 10 local authorities with the highest proportions of inactive residents.
Four of the other seven local authorities on the list are located in the northwest – Blackpool, Tameside, Knowlsley and Oldham.
Local authorities with highest levels of inactivity (per cent of adults) LB Newham 39.17 LB Barking and Dagenham 38.82 Blackpool 38.21 Tameside 38.06 Stoke-on-Trent 37.95 Hartlepool 37.30 North Lincolnshire 37.07 Knowsley 37.07 Oldham 36.96 LB Enfield 36.95
Across the capital, Richmond-upon-Thames came out as the English local authority with the lowest levels of inactivity. The borough has one of the highest levels of cycle commuters in London, while amenities such as Richmond Park or the Thames Path attract people on bike or foot alike.
Local authorities with lowest levels of inactivity (per cent of adults) LB Richmond upon Thames 16.34 LB Wandsworth 19.45 Leeds 21.05 LB Lambeth 21.22 Bedford 21.98 Rutland 22.33 Wokingham 22.53 York 22.70 RB Kingston upon Thames 22.71 Bracknell Forest 23.05
York, ranked eighth, also has much higher levels of cycling than the national average, as do three local authorities immediately outside the top ten – Oxfordshire, Brighton & Hove and Bath & North East Somerset.
The report from ukactive recommends:
• Health and Wellbeing Boards have a designated physical activity champion who will specifically work to ensure its appropriate integration and provision based on local needs.
• Cementing physical activity planning into areas such as public health, social care, education, environmental planning and transport policies.
• Implementing a more data-oriented approach to measuring programme outcomes and benchmarking progress across the physical activity sector.
David Stalker, CEO of ukactive, said: "We've known for some time that we're facing an uphill battle to reverse the inactivity trend and while the increase in funding represents a seismic shift in thinking amongst local authorities, building a sound evidence base to underpin the activity will be the ultimate difference between success and failure."
Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the report, describing ukactive’s work as “important” and saying it demonstrated the need to address the problem of physical inactivity.
He said: “I am delighted that local authorities are leading the way by starting to prioritise physical activity services in their local areas and in accordance to the local needs of their residents.
“The government has made it clear through our 'Moving More, Living More' initiative that departments will work together, with the Mayor of London's teams, to embed physical activity into the DNA of the nation as part of the long term physical activity legacy from the 2012 Games."
Newham’s unenviable status as England’s least active local authority has raised concerns over what benefits they are receiving from the much-heralded Olympic legacy, although that is likely to have been hampered by the works needed following London 2-012.
Much of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is now open to the public, including what is now the Lea Valley VeloPark and the London Aquatics Centre, which reopened in March this year.
Last month, a report commissioned by British Cycling said that increasing levels of cycling in Britain to those seen in Denmark could save the NHS £17 billion over the next two decades.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
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Very public spirited of him, the tax he would have to pay on capital gains (I'm not a tax expert by any means but I believe the exemption for cars...
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Vision is not something the DUP has ever been noted for
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<sucks teeth> "Ah, well, you 'ave a point but it'd be moranmejobswurf"
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I've just read that is someone with 217 points.
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As reported by Albert Londres in the Parisian newspaper in 1924............
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13 comments
At least it hasn't descended into loads of racist rants like on the BBC news comments. I guess as the article didn't mention cycling they started on immigrants instead, blaming them for the results, despite the actual report making no mention of this and pointing to social deprivation as the main factor. Sometimes, I'm ashamed to be British
London London london...FFS
Hartlepool, Leeds and York are London?
Leeds Castle is down that way
I do get the original sentiment though that all the discussion was about the Olympic park rather than the fact that some councils are just crap at encouraging exercise.
My local council is Wakefield, not surprised to see it so low, when they have recently announced the closure of three swimming pools in the area (covering three different towns) and plan to build one single new pool for almost half the council borough to share. Thing is there's going to be a gap of a couple of years between when they shut down the old pools and open a new one, so that will mean no council run facilities at all. In the last few years, that will add up to 5 pools in the area shut down by the council and not replaced.
And don't get me started on non-existent provision of cycle infrastructure (I don't count letting cyclists use bus lanes as infrastructure)
@crikey
Definitely. Personally I find its far easier to get exercise if its integrated into everyday life, and if its in pursuit of a real purpose (i.e. getting to work, or even sightseeing on holiday for that matter) rather than being a special chore you have to do for its own sake (i.e. going to a gym).
I think we should take care not to make the issue as simple as sports facilities = an active population. The only guaranteed beneficiaries of an increased number of sports venues are the people who build them...
If we were serious about changing peoples levels of activity, we would start by designing our society and it's infrastructure to reduce car use, and that's not going to happen anytime soon. Pedestrianisation and placing car parks away from shops and other facilities is a sure fire way of upsetting the majority of people.
Watch people drive to the gym and park as near to the front door as they can...
Access is a bit of an issue - especially this time of year. During the summer then the canals and Victoria Park provide good access. I cycle with a couple of my kids (11 and 13) there every Wednesday in the evening for a Hockey match at the new centre and even though it's only about 3km for us there is no good route.
The park it'self is coming along and the 'legacy' areas (e.g. tennis, hockey, velo) do seem to be getting some decent use which is great to see.
I commute through the Olympic park - it's great once you get to it, but there is an OK route down the Lee on canals and minor roads. The contrast between the open vistas there and the canal path is, errr, immense. Totally surrounded by nightmare junctions, but you can skip them now at least (travelling north south anyway). Sneaking down that way gives me 5 of my 10 mile route off the road, so I am happy.
Park itself is ok but there is a lot of it dedicated to paths and not much to areas you can sit down in. Kids area is good but it gets packed out (already) ditto cafe.
I have noticed there is an MTB path there now but, as it right next to the A12 it's a little noisy, yet to see anyone on it. Velopark is good, just jump the fence and ride it.
As for inactivity... starts with schools, and parents, and money as well as access. I suspect if you built a dozen open-access basketball courts, a dozen more fussball pitches and a skateramp things would improve instantly. All the facilities there are intimidating and seem to tell you mostly to move on.
In a masterclass of words with no intention of backing them up with anything whatsoever to actually make the roads a less terrifying place to ride a bike our premier comes up with the following guff.
Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the report, describing ukactive’s work as “important” and saying it demonstrated the need to address the problem of physical inactivity.
He said: “I am delighted that local authorities are leading the way by starting to prioritise physical activity services in their local areas and in accordance to the local needs of their residents.
“The government has made it clear through our 'Moving More, Living More' initiative that departments will work together, with the Mayor of London's teams, to embed physical activity into the DNA of the nation as part of the long term physical activity legacy from the 2012 Games."
As Panorama recently highlighted in their program about drivers who kill the life of a man killed by a reckless driver who was fined a pitiful sum is deemed less valuable than the fine issued against a man who had caused undue distress to a squirrel.
Thanks very much Mr. Cameron, good to know where we all stand and a clear sign if ever there was one that you are happy to stand by and allow the daily violence to go unchecked whilst frankly having the audacity to call a COBRA meeting when water levels got a bit high.
If only I was a buoyant garden gnome I really would feel safe in your hands knowing you lose sleep at night at the prospect of me tippling over onto a neighbouring herb garden or heaven forbid...actually floating away.
Guess we can look forward to yet another poster campaign telling people the bleedin obvious then, could I suggest the 'Stop eating crap and sitting on your backside' angle perhaps?
So, good luck Mr. Cameron with finding the billions to try and reverse your obesity epidemic, given the die hard 'protect the motorist' at all and any cost approach I can only presume a nation of overweight layabouts was part of the tory dream?
Political factions aside (I really don't care any more who is pretending to be in charge) watching government attempts at road safety these past couple of decades has been like watching someone trying to bail a sinking ship out with a Pot Noodle fork (other pre-packaged dried food convenience rubbish is available).
It's really intimidating to cycle to the Queen Elizabeth park, that's why. Eastway is a nightmare, so is Bow Roundabout, and so it's largely blocked off from the West, except for the not-well-known Greenway...
How about riding along the canal to get to the QE park?
I've been a number of times to Lee Valley Velopark (olympics site) and from my experience riding the road circuit and MTB trails, and from talking to the site operators, bike shop and local road cc, its criminally underused.
People just don't seem interested, even though this world class facility is incredibly accessible to Londoners and specifically LB Newham residents.
Its not _that_ accessible to 'Londoners'. London is a big place, and I can't see many making a special trip from Croydon or Ealing, say. Accessible to people in that particular part of London, sure.