LIKE many, I suspect, I thought the £1 billion budget for the North Yorkshire PCT (or whatever it is now called) was either a misprint or sloppy journalism. I now realise it was my own naivety which led to this view (£1bn is a lot of money, though – even to a bank).

What is clear is that about 20 per cent of this budget (£186m) is being spent on making fat people thin (Cost of obesity tops £186m – January 23). According to your editorial, initiatives include “efforts to encourage more children to do at least one hour of moderate exercise a day” and “fat camps for youngsters”. This is at a time when the PCT struggles to make its books balance and 100,000s are losing their jobs. This is a disgusting waste – a gluttony even Monty Python’s Mr Creosote would find hard to stomach. It’s time for some perspective. The council is guilty of screwing up public sports facilities (I don’t need to mention the Barbican) and seems hell-bent on wrecking public transport (would you catch a bus if you could drive?). In the meantime, social mobility is falling. Those who can afford it pay for private sport – the rest have to lump it. What sort of policy is that?

It’s simple – eat less and do more exercise. Why can’t the NHS, council and all those other public sector quangos get this into their thick heads? Stop paying for fat camps, stomach stapling and the rest. Start with decent sports facilities and a transport system people don’t mind using.

Tom Horrox, Lime Tree Mews, Dunnington, York.


* FOR several years the dire consequences of obesity have been headlined describing the various health risks.

Apparently, this has done little to prevent the spread of this affliction.

The estimated cost to the NHS for treatment runs into millions. It could be asked, would all of these unfortunates be treated and would not some of them succumb to similar sickness if they were not obese?

Now an NHS “fat camp” is proposed for seriously overweight children.

It is interesting that the prognosis for the “overweight” by 2015 assumes there will be no reduction as a result of the latest measures proposed to stamp out unhealthy lifestyles. Healthy diets can cost more and attendance to regular exercise classes can involve extra expense.

Schools need the co-operation of the parents and children to change to healthy living.

The rise in the heavyweight populace suggests “fight the flab” campaigns are becoming background noise and the general population will continue to live according to their wants.

There can be little justification for a further injection of public money towards another campaign which attempts to promote healthy living.

J Beisly, Osprey Close, York.


* OH, MY word. I was confused for a good 15 minutes after reading that the cost of obesity had topped £168 million. I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or put on my Cliff Richard greatest hits CD.

Fat camp for children? That is obscene.

I must admit, I’m a bit of a porker nowadays, but I know why. It’s because I eat too many kebabs, drink far too many pints of Centurion bitter, and exercise about three times a year.

It hasn’t always been like that. Growing up, my mum would make me eat healthily. If I left a healthy meal, it would be cling-filmed and put in the fridge for the next day. She would make me go and play outdoors instead of watching television or playing on my ZX Spectrum. As far as my memory serves me as well, she never used to let me drink Centurion as a child.

Today’s kids culture is that of pizzas, Playstations and lazing about, and a lot of the parents are the same. That is the problem. I don’t blame the kids, I blame the parents.

Instead of going for the quick fix of sitting your kids in front of the telly with a mountain of Mars bars, take them out into the wonderful countryside for a walk. Get them playing sport, eating good food. It is that simple.

I believe that the parents of any child who has to go through the humiliation of something like fat camp should be prosecuted for child abuse, and forced to foot the bill.

Right, where’s my pint of Centurion?

Adam Quentin McCartney, Nidd Grove, York.