Obesity Transport and Exercise

Monday October 8th 2007 10am – 4pm

Friends Meeting House Mount Street Manchester

Richard Armitage, Richard Armitage Transport Consultancy Ltd. RATC works with commercial, government, NHS and voluntary organisations, specialising in community and accessible transport, travel plans, and car clubs. RATC is working on site-based Travel Plans in Bury, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, and Wigan. In Ireland, RATC is studying car club feasibility for Cork City Council.

Philip Insall Sustrans. Philip Insall is the director of Active Travel, one of the programmes of Sustrans, which is an NGO working on transport projects in the UK to “increase the chance for people to get out of theirs cars and to travel by walking, cycling or by public transport”. He will be discussing the potential for walking and cycling to contribute to a health strategy based on travel behaviour surveys for the Sustainable Travel Demonstration Towns and the National Cycle Network as an intervention from a public health point of view.

Philip’s presentation: Healthy and sustainable: why walking and cycling are central to public health policy

 

Dr Pauleen Lane Deputy Chairman of English Partnerships & Board Member of the North West Development Agency, where she chairs their infrastructure subgroup. Dr Pauleen Lane is a civil engineer by profession, graduating from Manchester University in 1985. After obtaining her PhD, she worked in transportation, bridge and highway design, and construction. She holds an academic post in engineering at the University of Manchester. She will talk about the politics of changing human behaviour.

Dr Steven Watkins, Chair Transport & Health Study Group.  Dr Watkins is Director of Public Health in Stockport

A new report by the Institute for European Environmental Policy and Adrian Davis Associates published on August 13, 2007 highlights the extent to which car use is implicated in the increase in obesity as well as rising carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

During 2007 a large-scale report on the medical effects of airborne road pollution on children living near busy highways confirmed views, long-held by UK experts, that further augmentation of road transport infrastructure is not consistent with the improved health and well-being of people. By adding your name to this petition you will be sending a clear message to those who govern us that ordinary people want to know the facts about the health consequences of, what are usually irreversible, large-scale changes to the infrastructure of our Nation.

The most recent (2007) 26th Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution report, “The Urban Environment” makes repeated recommendation that, a HIA should be a mandatory component of any considerations for such schemes

July 2007: Building Health: Creating and enhancing places for healthy, active lives: What needs to be done? National Heart Forum