维多利亚时代的治疗方法在现代引起灾难
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Major report by region's geographers

HEALTH experts are calling for Victorian parks to be restored to their former glory to solve 21st Century obesity and health problems.

First built to promote public health in the 19th century, urban parks have fallen into disrepair and are generally underused, poorly equipped and are associated with grime and crime.

But a report by Manchester Metropolitan University and the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University argues that the 3,000 urban parks in the North West should play a key role in reversing inactivity and trimming waistlines.

And they call for more joined up thinking and more innovative planning to get people back into parks and keeping healthy.

Rich legacy

Principal lecturer in urban conservation at MMU, Dr Phil Wheater said: "We’ve got a rich legacy here in the North West. City parks were pioneered in the great northern towns of Manchester and Liverpool as an antidote to smog.

"Parks served a public health need then and arguably we need them even more today when obesity is costing the NHS £1 billion a year*."

"Today children cannot play in the street because of our car culture, so we need to attract them back to the parks."

The 140-page report which is backed by NHS North West, the Government Office North West and a host of green and health agencies, found that only 9% of urban parks had 5-a-side pitches, only 10% had skateboard/BMX areas, and 29% had tennis courts.

Similarly, only 5% had a park-ranger, 22% had toilets, and just 6% had a café. Though an encouraging 66% have play areas for children.

The report also found:

- access to information about parks was poor
- activities to reverse the decline in parks focused on facilities rather than usage
- an exodus to ‘sanitised’ gyms

"Lottery and other monies have been spent on the physical upkeep of parks in recent years, but local authorities need to be much more innovative than to simply replace worn out facilities.

"They need to think strategically about leisure and the environment and market parks to a more sophisticated public," added Dr Wheater.

Walter Menzies, Chief Executive of the Mersey Basin Campaign said: "Healthy communities begin with decent housing and public parks. We have a very long way to go here in the Northwest. This report is an important contribution to the debate."

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