Shropshire Star comment: Is walking 10 minutes so hard?
Come on, can it really be true that almost half of Telford folk rarely put one foot in front of the other for more than 10 minutes at a time?
You would have thought it took longer than that to walk back to the car park from the supermarket. And when they are in the supermarket, surely they are walking round for longer than 10 minutes at a stretch?
But the figures are the figures, and according to them 40 per cent of people in the Telford & Wrekin Council area do not walk for 10 minutes consecutively a week, and in Shropshire, nearly a third fail to do so.
These results come from Sport England's Active Live survey, which asked a random sample of adult Salopians about how active they had been in the previous four weeks.
There is no point arguing with the ref if Shropshire folk have 'fessed up in this way to lifestyles which do not include significant amounts of sustained walking.
Sport England wants to help everyone feel able to get involved in sport and physical activity. This is a positive agenda promoting a fit and healthy lifestyle. You know it's good for you.
The reasons so many people do not adhere to this ideal will be varied. Maybe they don't have time, maybe they don't have a dog they could usefully walk, or maybe they simply don't want to walk unless they have to. It is, after all, a free country. And it is, after all, a free National Health Service. Free, that is, in the sense that everybody is paying for it through their taxes.
Slobbing
Promoting brisk walking for health and wellbeing is one thing, but there is a rising tide of opinion which has it that living a healthy lifestyle is a matter of social responsibility, because living an unhealthy lifestyle is a direct factor in various medical problems which have to be sorted out by an NHS which is paid for by taxpayers and would have been declared bankrupt long ago were it not for that funding method.
There are already noises along the lines of why should the NHS be treating those who wilfully do not look after themselves.
The pity of it all is that with its many green spaces, Telford has many pleasant walks, and the Shropshire countryside is beautiful and inviting.
There are so many good reasons to enjoy the great outdoors. And how ironic it would be if it turns out that people are not doing so because they are slobbing on the sofa – watching sport.
