Government Fitness Drive May Open Footpaths

A new government drive to persuade flabby, inert Brits to take more exercise could play a part in opening up more country paths according to a story in last Sunday's Observer.

The paper says it has had access to a leaked Tony Blair letter which stresses the need to tackle growing flabbiness and lack of fitness in the population as a whole. About half the adult population does little or no sport, says the paper, something which the government is reportedly to tackle with a fitness campaign linked to the 2012 Olympic Games bid and a £1 million publicity campaign.

The interesting bit for walkers though is that there is apparently an Activity Coordination Team linking nine government departments to come up with ideas and as part of that initiative, the Environment Minsister is 'examining ways of opening up more country paths'.

The news will no doubt be welcomed by the Rambers' Association which has campaigned vigorously to highlight the huge numbers of footpaths and other rights of way which are blocked or otherwise unuseable. See this section of their web site.

Walking is one of the most effective means of reducing body fat as the relatively low intensity of the activity relies mostly on the fat-burning mechanism.