I'm really, really not a fan of Owen Jones but this is pretty good:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/10/cities-healthy-parks-cycling-economy
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
"...make our cities healthy places to live"
(6 posts)-
Posted 10 years ago #
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Colleague of mine is one of the authors of this. Disappointed that it doesn't mention travel:
https://www.holyrood.com/articles/comment/our-prevention-crisis
Posted 10 years ago # -
Linked from OJ article.
"
Increasing amount of green space and promoting walking, cycling and use of public transport has significant economic benefits, study concludes
"
Posted 10 years ago # -
SRD - interesting article and I agree with the conclusions. However, I think it misses two key points:
Finance: Preventative spend tends to have a long lead-in time before there are positive outcomes. Invest in cycle infrastructure and 20/30 years down the line you save the NHS a fortune. However, during those 20/30 years you still need to deal with the tidal wave of crisis cases caused by inactivity. These are expensive to deal with and hoover up almost all the available cash. The only way to invest in preventative spend in a meaningful way is to increase overall Government expenditure, so you can deal with both things at once. This isn't going to happen in the current political climate.
Political culture: It takes a very bold politician to make significant investment in preventative spending. They get no thanks, or electoral advantage, by investing in something with a pay-off measured in decades. The article suggests changes to recruitment or training of civil and public servants, but fails to mention that their priorities are set by politicians.
Preventative spend is a great idea. Politicians and public servants really want it to happen. It's just that no-one can think of a way to do it while also keeping the show on the road (and their seats in Parliament).
Posted 10 years ago # -
"It takes a very bold politician to make significant investment in preventative spending. They get no thanks, or electoral advantage"
That definitely has been the case, but now (I wish to believe!) enough people 'understand' and even talk about it in public. The same 'longtermism' affects a lot of the 'debate' around Climate Change. One problem there is that 'some people don't believe it' and there are uncertainties about 'the best ways' and 'electoral consequences'.
"Preventative spend is a great idea. Politicians and public servants really want it to happen"
Happy to take your word for it. It's a while since I've talked to fairly senior civil servants about all this - particularly about 'Health'. Discussions usually consisted of 'well we want to do it, but they want new hospitals and more high tech medicine'.
Similar to 'we want ActiveTravel, they want more roads' .
Needs some political leadership - which obviously should come from politicians (but doesn't necessarily have to). Civil servants really shouldn't hide behind 'we're just doing what the Government wants' - especially if they think it's a mistake!
The SNP could/should have done a LOT more in line with its greener/wiser/whatever slogans.
A poll yesterday said that they are even 'more popular' for the Holyrood election than the Westminster one!
They could put just about anything in their next manifesto...
Posted 10 years ago # -
From the NZ thread -
Posted 10 years ago #
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