Healthcare for London consultation, January 2008

Dear Mary Wells, Sutton & Merton PCT Chief Executive

Many thanks for sending our group a copy of your Healthcare for London consultation.

We have read through the document and can only find one mention of cycling, on page 15, under the appropriate heading of Staying Healthy.

We have long believed that the Health Service should be promoting and indeed prescribing cycling, as a means of local travel, in order to keep fit and stay healthy. The BMA has evidence that regular cyclists have fitness levels equivalent to someone ten years younger (BMA report Cycling Towards Health and Safety 1992). Regular Cycling can improve health through increased fitness, lower risk of heart attack, shedding excess weight, and reducing stress.

I understand that Primary care trusts and health professionals in England have very recently been sent a new report detailing the health benefits of cycling. The report has been produced for Cycling England and is intended to address the undervaluing of cycling in some parts of the health sector. In the introduction, Cycling England chairman Philip Darnton explains: "This publication sets out to review the evidence that supports cycling for health and provide a solid platform for action. We hope that it will deliver useful facts and figures on cycling and health, and present a concrete justification for promoting cycling on the basis of the strong health benefits." The full report is available here

Cycling is an activity which many more people could do much more often to keep fit and get from A to B. I hope you will be able to make use of this new report and bring cycling a little more to the fore in your strategy to get Londoners fitter!

Yours sincerely

Richard Evans

Merton Cycling Campaign