Is it me or is it you?

Over the past week I have been thinking a little bit about how exciting it is that the Tour of Britain has two stages in Lincolnshire this year (if you want to know the stage routes you can find them here). Even if you aren’t interested in cycling events like these are wonderful opportunities to celebrate everything that is good about the place we call home and can also be used to draw attention to important things. We will be doing some work to support community groups and VCFSE organisations across Lincolnshire to get involved… keep an eye out for that over the next month. And it will seamlessly set us off for Move More September.

It has made me think that we don’t celebrate the good stuff enough and it has also made me think about how we focus our attention on the individual. The announcement that the NHS will reward us if we are active for 30 minutes is another example. We rightly celebrate people who make big changes in their lives, the kind of changes that mean they are living healthier lives. Equally we focus on the changes individuals ‘need’ to make to take control of their health and their lives. I don’t disagree with this in that we should be responsible for our wellbeing however I think we will miss a trick if we only focus on the things individuals are inspired to do by the Tour of Britain or only reward the individual who walks for 30 minutes a day. We also need to use these events and campaigns to drive changes at institutional levels.

As someone who grew up in Lincolnshire cycling everywhere I think about how the very idea of cycling on today’s roads fills me with fear. Who has seen a cycle path in a new housing development or a safe cycle (and mobility scooter) route connecting villages in rural Lincolnshire? These are things that could help people to be active and get out more. It also makes me wonder when did our attitudes to cycling shift from it being a mode of transport to a leisure activity? As someone who notices the adverts and billboards and the graffiti and murals it worries me that so much of what I see promotes behaviours and habits that are not healthy.

What are the environmental and systemic things we can draw attention to through the Tour of Britain or national campaigns like Move More September. How could we have used the World Cup to encourage more street games and make suburban streets less car dominated- creating spaces that encourage play, cycling or walking and shift our attention from the individual to the environment. How can we use the Tour of Britain and Move More September to draw attention to the lack of safe cycle ways or other structural and environmental things that get in the way of us livinghealthier lives.

It will be interesting to see if the new responsibility for wider health (through housing and transport for example) that the Combined County Authority will have as a consequence of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act will drive any change (this Linked In post from Paul Ogden is a good place to start if you are interested in this) and as I write this the radio news tells me that the Parliamentary Health and Social Care Committee is calling for all outdoor advertising of junk food to be banned which for me would definitely be a positive step.