Sir – Senior Oxfordshire county councillors (Ian Hudspeth, Rodney Rose and Charles Mathew) have recently asked what the benefits are of constructing a community path along the B4044 from Eynsham to Dean Court?
Reviewing the results of the Eynsham Commuter Challenge, featured in your newspaper with reader comments last October, and using the new World Health Organisation’s Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) reveals some fascinating results.
The community path would generate health benefits 29 times greater than the costs of building the path and the costs incurred in delays by bus commuters would pay for the path within three years.
The community path offers fantastic value for money within just a few years and it protects the population of Eynsham and beyond from the future health costs associated with an inactive lifestyle.
This is an important finding in a month when central Government is transferring local NHS care costs to county councils.
Politicians appear not to believe the health time bomb of obesity, type II diabetes and circulatory-associated disease. Public health professionals suggest that we may have the first time in human history when parents will outlive their overweight offspring.
150 minutes of weekly exercise dramatically reduces these illnesses and costs. That’s 30 minutes a day or a 15-minute bike ride: very achievable with practice from Eynsham on a Government tax-free bike.
Simon Banks, Oxford