SIR – On Saturday, February 1, the T&A headline on the front page was ‘A capital of couch potatoes’.

There are several factors involved in the present obesity pandemic sweeping the land and the main offender is technology.

The human body has not evolved to have everything done for it at the touch of a button. ‘Online shopping’ doesn’t help in this matter.

The seeds of this problem are sown at school – children now get far less exercise than in my days.

One step forward with this problem would be for schools to ban mobile phones, iPods, etc, so that children would need to pass the time during breaks in a more physical way.

A major problem is our modern trend in food – we cannot walk a few yards without bumping into a ‘fast food’ outlet. We had these in my childhood, they were called fish and chip shops, of which we partook once a week as part of a healthy diet.

Many families do very little cooking at all, they simply order curries, pizzas etc, over their mobile phones.

I know good schools that are getting the children interested in growing food and cooking healthily.

More facilities for both young and older need to be made available, eg swimming pools, gyms, youth clubs etc.

Many councils would say we cannot afford to do this. I would say they cannot afford not to.

Terry Tordoff, Calderstone Avenue, Buttershaw