Leisure Media Issue 3 2009 - Leisure Opportunities

BIGambitionsA FITTER CITYEDINBURGH IS AIMING TOBECOME THE MOST PHYSICALLYACTIVE CITY IN EUROPE BY2020. JULIE CRAMER REPORTSIN THE SECOND OF OUR SERIESThe Edinburgh NocturneON CITIES WITH BIG AMBITIONSdinburgh is a city of naturalbeauty, sporting and culturalheritage, a thriving annual artsE festival and new year celebrationswhich draw crowds from aroundthe world. So it’s perhaps not surprisingthat when a council steering group cameto pen a strategy looking at the future ofsport and leisure in the Scottish capital, itwanted to create something on an ambitiousscale. In 2003, that document – A Capital Commitment toSport – laid out the council’s aims for Edinburgh to become themost physically active city in Europe by 2020.They were lofty ambitions, but also ambitions generated bya true health crisis, not just in Edinburgh, but Scotland as awhole. Statistics from the government as it published its WhitePaper for Health a decade ago would not have made easy readingfor health and leisure professionals.Life expectancy at birth in Scotland was less than in England,Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland’s death rate from cancerwas the highest in Western Europe, with colon and breast cancershowing some of the fastest-growing rates. Its death ratefrom coronary heart disease was the second-highest in Europe,with 12,500 premature deaths per year.For public health departments and the leisure sector alike, thefirst challenge was to get the message across to the public thatincreasing levels of physical activity could significantly reducethese mortality rates and positively improve health. The second,a rather uphill challenge, was to translate words into action, andactually get people to participate.From its White Paper, the Scottish Government went on in2000 to form the Physical Activity Task Force dedicated to managingnational health objectives – initially headed by formerThe Heineken Cup FinalThe MoonWalk EdinburghEDINBURGH’S CAPITAL COMMITMENT TO SPORTEdinburgh’s Capital Commitmentto Sport came up with a numberof recommendations for the citygoing forward, including: Increase participation by people fromunder-represented sections of thecommunity with the appointmentof development officers Involve young people in theplanning of provision Review access costs for young people Strengthen the place and value ofPE, school and community sport In target sports, establish andprovide sustained support for clearsports development pathways Create better programmesof activity for girls Develop family-friendly policieswith the particular objectiveof increasing participation Maximise opportunities for resourcebasedaccess for walking, cycling andrunning in Edinburgh and nearby Create a Sports Forum to build linkswith the voluntary sports sector Employ a full-time marketing teamfor sport and physical recreation Establish an action plan to attractmore major sporting events to the city38 Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digitalISSUE 3 2009 © cybertrek 2009