7. Member Debate under Standing Order 11.21(iv): Active Travel

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:31 pm on 20 February 2019.

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Photo of David Lloyd David Lloyd Plaid Cymru 5:31, 20 February 2019

Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. I was slightly sidetracked there for a moment, but there we go. I'm glad to be able to take part in this very important debate. Obviously, it was also a very important debate when we had it last September as well, and I take on board both what Huw Irranca-Davies and Russell George have just said. So, just to reiterate the points, really, that it's about physical fitness, and I'll just emphasise the benefits of it. As I've said before here, if you're physically fit, your blood pressure is 30 per cent lower than if you're not physically fit. If you're physically fit, your blood sugar level is 30 per cent lower than if you're not physically fit. And if you're physically fit, your cholesterol level is 30 per cent lower than if you're not physically fit. I mean, if we produced a tablet that did that, we'd be crying out for it to be prescribed left, right and centre. We haven't produced a tablet that can do that. Most cholesterol-lowering drugs—they can drop your cholesterol by about 10 per cent. Here we have the means to drop your cholesterol level by 30 per cent and still not enough of us are doing it.

It requires 6x30 minutes sessions of brisk exercise per week. You can be the very epitome of Geraint Thomas there in Huw Irranca and cycling all the way to Maesteg and back or whatever, but it doesn't have to be that way, or get hold of Lycra. It can be a brisk walk. You could do your 10,000 steps a day in this Senedd building. Try not to use the lifts—those of us who can avoid using the lifts, you can get your 10,000 steps a day in the average working day in the Senedd. You don't need Lycra, and that's basically—[Interruption.] Well, they can have Lycra if they want on the Conservative benches over there, but, frankly, you can do your 10,000 steps here in the Senedd just by walking. But we do need the additional infrastructure, as Huw was saying earlier, to make walking easier around Wales. We have the coastal path, but let's make it easier. Ramblers—amazing; we need to be walking everywhere. There is that thing about walk the walk, and we do enough talking the talking here, but walking the walking and cycling the cycling is amazingly successful.

In a couple of weeks' time, the health committee is launching a physical activity report, and part of that is about just getting this idea of physical activity into children early enough so that they have the confidence, as they grow, to be physically active—not decide randomly that all that physical activity stuff is not for them. And the evidence shows that you've got to be adept at motor skills and running and walking and catching and kicking a ball by about the age of seven to have that sort of confidence to go all out and be physically active. If you haven't got that, you tend to be a bit reticent as you grow up about the whole physical activity agenda. So, there is a lesson there. But, basically, we know the facts now, and it requires a behavioural change in terms of the amount of physical activity, and it requires a behavioural change also in our diet, and to recognise that sugar is the enemy now, not fat, so much—sugar. I'm not looking at anybody in particular on the Conservative benches. Carbohydrates are converted to sugar, obviously, in the body. So, sugar and carbohydrates—we need to look at that personally. We can call for Government to do a lot of things, we can call for schools to do a lot of things, but an awful lot of things are also down to how we live our lives personally. So, support the motion. Diolch yn fawr.