HEALTH bosses are to target 'couch potatoes', after a survey showed more than half of Bradford's population does no exercise at all.

And they will consider whether urban areas need to be turned into safer places for families to walk, play or cycle to combat the district's worse than average inactivity rates - even if those changes inconvenience drivers.

Lack of exercise is shown to cause 17 per cent of premature deaths and last year it cost the district's health system more than £24 million, a meeting of Bradford's Health and Wellbeing Board heard yesterday.

The meeting was told a sedentary lifestyle contributes to more than 20 diseases, including colon cancer, breast cancer and type two diabetes, and inactivity rates in Bradford are worse than average.

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And it was heard too many people were leading sedentary lifestyles, from children who were dropped to school by car to adults who drove 250 yards down the road to pick up a pint of milk.

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Councillor Andrew Thornton, the executive member for sport at Labour-run Bradford Council, said the problem came "with a very, very high price tag" and tackling it would benefit the health system and the wider population.

He said: "This is about stopping them coming in the front door of health facilities in the first place."

Health bosses also said the solution was not necessarily getting people involved in organised sports but to build activity into their day-to-day lives.

Phil Barker, Bradford Council's assistant director for sport and leisure, said it was not about targeting those who were already active, or those with health problems who were referred to exercise schemes by their GPs, but the "400,000 in between".

He said: "That's a massive ask. You can't start pulling them into gyms or swimming pools. You have got to get them on the roads, you have got to get them into parks and green spaces. That's why a lot of the solutions look like cycling, walking and running."

But Councillor David Green, chairman of the board and leader of the Council, said they also had to respond to people's interests, whether that be gardening or walking to the local library.

He said: "I think we have got to stop prescribing what it is they are doing and say, 'Do something, for God's sake'."

Health bosses heard that one of the main barriers to people getting out and about more often was because neighbourhoods were not perceived to be safe or welcoming.

Councillor Ralph Berry, executive member for children's services at Bradford Council, said there had been three children killed on the roads in three years in the Rooley Lane area of Bradford.

He said: "Unpopular it may be for some of our drivers - and I'm a driver - I think we need to look at some of our urban spaces."

Councillor Simon Cooke, the Conservative representative on the board, agreed, but said the idea would upset drivers, "mostly men".

He said he recalled one council meeting where a group of mothers had petitioned to stop cars from parking on a square in a neighbourhood.

He said: "I remember at the sub-committee, having hordes of men come to explain exactly why it is absolutely important they had to park the car right outside the door, practically in their front room."

Cllr Cooke said as a result, the square remained "absolutely rammed full in what could really be a nice space for families to use".

He called for a discussion to be held in public about the types of changes that could be made to the district's urban areas.