Playing fields for schools is also vital to good health

5:11pm Wednesday 5th November 2008

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THE Greens support the council in preventing fast food shops from being near schools and parks as childhood obesity is a major challenge for Waltham Forest. We would agree that tackling this problem requires a change to a healthier diet and more exercise for children.

Where the council fails is in joined-up thinking on this issue.

The recently opened Frederick Bremer School in Walthamstow was designed and built with no playing fields.

At a time when there is agreement that children should spend more time playing sports at school, a school that has few on-site facilities wastes at least 30 minutes of the allotted time travelling to different venues.

Whilst this maybe an inherited problem in old schools, Frederick Bremer is a brand new purpose-built school.

The new school was built using the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), a system that is known to be inefficient, overall costing far more than public finance. It is also the case with PFI schemes that money comes first, over other considerations like the service provided – or may be even playing fields.

Although the council is doing the right thing restricting fast food shops, it is a shame that it puts money before children’s health building a school with no playing fields. And it is an irony that the school is in one of the Olympic boroughs.

Steve Lambert, Waltham Forest and Redbridge Green Party.