Should city officials be responsible for addressing the rising costs of obesity and chronic ill health?

I think city officials could make some simple changes to how they allocate their (shrinking) budgets that would go a long way to helping the situtaion. The WHO has stated that depression will be the 2nd biggest cause of ill health glolbally by 2020. A leading cause of depression has been shown to be a disconnection from the natural world, alongside social isolation. Ergo, if city officals supported the planting of a bio-diverse mix of edibles around our communities (fruit, nuts, berries), allowed natural play on vacant lots, in fact gave the city back to the people, we would be encouraged to go outside, (exercise in the fresh air), eat free, locally-sourced fresh food (nutrition), chat to others (reducing social isolation), learn about the natural world through being in touch with its rough edges, rather than piped streams and neatly mown lawns in the local park or school play ground, and we would value our environment as we would have had direct experience of the birds, bees and trees.

Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease and some cancers are linked Obesity and an unhealthy lifestyle. Obesity is linked to depression, often as a result of lack of access to quality outdoor experience in natural greenspace. Of the 6 leading health concerns on the UK's list, ( is the USA's list similar? Probably) all can be tackled cost effectively with early intervention greenspace programmes.

So yes I believe that city officials should be looking for 'joined up thinking', coordinated approaches to urban planning, public health, schools, play and design. If the local authority is paying out for schooling and healthcare, they need to get value for their expenditure. This is certainly what our practice is working towards. We work with the community to design healthy, liveable sustainable communities.

Sensory gardens and natural play

I met an officer from a UK local authority last week who bemoaned the plethora of pirate ships that had gone in all over her county in the last 24 months. With apologies to my friends in the equipment industry, pirate ships are expensive, fixed, unchanging pieces of kit, and some can be problematic in terms of entrapment issues as described by John. A landscape led play site costs the same to maintain, less to install, and the kids can make anything of it as they wish.

In this year of bio-diversity more needs to be made of playable sensory planting and the cost effective nature of natural play provision. We need some equipment and to do more than to plonk random 'natural' items - smooth boulders and peeled logs - in a space, but not much more.