Creating a Built Environment That Keeps us Active
The Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Services Delivery, Warren Snowdon, launched the Healthy Spaces and Places projectat the Built Environment Meets Parliament Summit in Canberra.
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12 August 2009
The Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Services Delivery, Warren Snowdon, today launched the Healthy Spaces and Places project at the Built Environment Meets Parliament Summit in Canberra.
The Healthy Spaces and Places project is an important partnership between the Heart Foundation, the Australian Local Government Association and the Planning Institute of Australia.
It aims to improve the health and wellbeing of all Australians from the ground up; through better designed built environments.
The Healthy Spaces and Places project has produced a web-based national planning guide with practical tools, case studies and guidelines, to assist planning and design practitioners to incorporate active living principles into the built environment.
“Research shows that the spaces and places we live in can have a significant impact on our fitness. Good and people-friendly design can promote healthy lifestyles by encouraging walking, cycling and active recreation,” Mr Snowdon said.
“Neighbourhood characteristics such as housing density, land use mix, traffic, street connectivity, lighting, access to paths and cycle ways and proximity to employment have been shown to have an impact on physical activity levels.
“The Healthy Spaces and Places guide will encourage developers and planners to consider these elements in the design of our towns, parks, suburbs, shopping centres or any built environment – be it urban or regional,” he said.
The Healthy Spaces and Places collaboration has been supported with $855,000 of Federal funding, and has consulted broadly with planning and health professionals, governments, the development industry and community sector, and academics and researchers via a series of workshops held in metropolitan and regional locations around Australia.
For further information visit the Healthy Spaces and Places website: http://www.healthyplaces.org.au
Media contact: Kate Sieper 0488 484 689.
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