You have had a good look at our first website, we hope.
If not, please go and do so!
The report of the Select Committee did not appear to take a lot of notice of what we said. There were so many long submissions from official bodies, pressure groups and people with impressive academic qualifications, so that our paper and the scant ten minutes allowed for our presentation didn’t seem to make much impression. The main emphasis was on people eating a better diet, avoiding fattening food and drink, and we totally agree with that. However, proper exercise is “the other blade of the scissors” and little was said about ways of facilitating that aspect. In any case, the centres we advocate are places which give advice on a proper lifestyle, including diet, and holding classes on nutrition.
So we decided to go and take a look for ourselves at some of the centres which we had mentioned, when we went back to the UK to say hello to our relations and friends.
They were named “Leisure Centres” which can mean many things, but we tried to choose only those which have outreach to all people, young and old, and a real commitment to improving the health of the whole population of their area. We visited the Leisure Centres of the Shetland Islands, then Elgin in Moray, Scotland's smallest city, looked at a mobile facility in Kilmarnock south of Glasgow, and a network of centres in Caerphilly, a deprived region of South Wales, talking with both users and staff.
At all these places we were given a most friendly and helpful reception. We believe this is partly due to the fact that those there believe firmly in the value of what they are doing. We recorded our visit on still and video cameras, but it was unfortunately not possible to film most of the activities because of the privacy laws.
There may be some Leisure Centres of this kind in New Zealand cities, and means must be found to bring the benefits to everyone in this country, wherever they live.
We made a 51 minute DVD of our experiences at these places, and if you are interested please go to the last page of this website, which cannot deal with the topic fully.
Most local Councils in New Zealand would find it impossible to fund such centres properly, and it is our contention that Central Government must do so: after all, there will be a substantial saving in Health costs if our population eats properly and exercises adequately.
This is Northland, where we live: just one typical rural part of New Zealand.
The blue circles show heated indoor public swimming pools as some indication of the few facilities available for exercise!
We show swimming pools because swimming is very suitable for people of all ages and physical types and water exercise is prescribed for many physical disabilities.
The situation for gyms and “dry” exercise facilities is not much better.
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