The so-called “healthy towns” are the foundation of ten new housing developments intended to be created in England over the next few years. The aim of the constructs, and the basis of town planning, is with “healthy living” at the center. The aim is to build 76,000 new homes for 170,000 residents.
The town swill be developed with the contribution of the U.K. National Health Service. Here medics, designers and technology experts will work in unison to create the “healthy new towns”. What exactly does this mean?
Among the aspects of health and well-being being considered are:
Homes with virtual access to medical services through technology;
Safe green spaces for children to play in;
Care homes for the the elderly pre-built;
In some cases, ‘garden cities’ where the number of green spaces will be maximized;
Facilities for people with different mental and physical disabilities;
Areas where the sale of fast-food-free is not permitted, such as around schools.
Although government backed, the new towns are to be funded from municipal authorities and private capital. The areas being considered are in the south west of England; London; and the north west of England. The fulll ist is:
Whitehill and Bordon, Hampshire – where a former army barracks is to be converted;
Darlington;
Cranbrook, Devon;
Ebbsfleet Garden City, Kent;
Barking Riverside, using former factory land;
Bicester, Oxfordshire;
Northstowe, Cambridgeshire, using former military land;
Whyndyke Farm in Fylde, Lancashire;
Barton Park, Oxford;
Halton Lea, Runcorn.
Speaking with the BBC, Simon Stevens, who is the head of NHS England, stated: “As these new neighbourhoods and towns are built, we’ll kick ourselves if in 10 years’ time we look back having missed the opportunity to ‘design out’ the obesogenic environment, and ‘design in’ health and wellbeing.” The term “obesogenic environment” is a new buzz phrase being used by the British government; it refers to environments that encourage the use of cars rather than walking.
He also added: “We want children to have places where they want to play with friends and can safely walk or cycle to school – rather than just exercising their fingers on video games.”
