Column

Putting health on the map

Maddy Halliday, co-ordinator of Healthy Sheffield 2000, talks to healthmatters about the planning the public doesn’t see

Healthy Sheffield 2000 (HS2000) is a relatively new initiative that hopes to put public health back on the map in Sheffield. It aims to ensure that strategies and plans for economic regeneration in the city takes into account health considerations, that the health promoting aspects of primary healthcare and social services are enhanced and that there are significant improvements in the environment to reduce the health damaging effects of pollution and urban decay.

Today I have had to consider the issue of a community development health project in a part of the city that will, over the next few years, have first an open cast mine followed by an airport, which will be built on the site of the mine once mining has ceased. There is, understandably, considerable local opposition to the mine and airport, but planning permission has been given,

Community groups in the area are concerned about the possible health effects of both developments. The idea for the project has not come from the community itself, but from the city council. Even so, there may be support for the project in the community.

This situation demonstrates the many problems there are around community influence and power and the role of community development — is it about empowerment or co-option?

After a meeting to discuss the collaboration of HS2000 in an AIDS project, I attend a meeting of the city’s planning department to look at the impact of planning on health.

Some health connections are fairly obvious: the location of industry is important because of pollution considerations, environmental improvements can make a neighbourhood more pleasant and safer to live in, transport planning can have a dramatic impact on the number of accidents. But there are other less obvious connections. Take, for example, the World Student Games. My last major task of the day is to organise a meeting to discuss the economic impact study of the World Student Games, which will be held in Sheffield in 1991, and the use of the facilities after the games. I then tidy my desk and leave for home — a pleasant 10 minute stroll through the city.