The Leisure Review: news in brief

Edition number 88; dateline 21 May 2015

You can’t outrun a bad diet. Or can you?
Physical activity may be a miracle cure for the prevention and management of chronic disease but it will not provide a solution to the obesity epidemic. This stark warning is contained in the editorial of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) and the article, titled “It is time to bust the myth of physical inactivity and obesity: you cannot outrun a bad diet issues”, issues a direct challenge to the food industry, condemning the celebrity endorsement of sugar-based drinks and the association of fast-food brands with sport. Or at least it was. The article, authored by Malhotra, Noakes and Phinney, has been withdrawn from the BJSM website with a note reading: “This paper has been temporarily removed following an expression of concern.” The original paper calls for an end to misleading and unscientific “health halo” around sport: “In the past 30 years, as obesity has rocketed, there has been little change in physical activity levels in the Western population. This places the blame for our expanding waist lines directly on the type and amount of calories consumed. However, the obesity epidemic represents only the tip of a much larger iceberg of the adverse health consequences of poor diet. According to the Lancet global burden of disease reports, poor diet now generates more disease than physical inactivity, alcohol and smoking combined.” The article suggests that the marketing of food and drink brands are creating health problems around the world: “Coca Cola, who spent $3.3 billion on advertising in 2013, pushes a message that ‘all calories count’; they associate their products with sport, suggesting it is OK to consume their drinks as long as you exercise. However, science tells us this is misleading and wrong. It is where the calories come from that is crucial. Sugar calories promote fat storage and hunger. Fat calories induce fullness or ‘satiation’.” At the time of going to press there was no further clarification on the withdrawal.
• You can find the BJSM online at bjsm.bmj.com

Quest assurances following Allison intervention
Quest will not be adopting an exclusively health-focused approach, according to Quest operations director Caroline Constantine. Her reassurance follows a presentation by Quest chair, Martyn Allison, in which he reiterated the views expressed in an article for the Leisure Review that the sport and leisure industry must become a serious contributor to the public health agenda if it is to survive the challenges of austerity. Constantine said: “While Quest completely supports Martyn’s view that the industry must adapt to the challenges ahead, operators should not panic. Quest is not going to turn into a health-related accreditation overnight. The integration of more physical activity participation and health-related modules will be gradual and seamless. Quest will not give up its key objectives of ensuring leisure centres and sports development teams are operating in a safe, clean and friendly manner.” Allison’s challenge was for the sector to acknowledge the need for fundamental change. “We have to become part of this transformation of public services,” he said. “We can’t sit on the sidelines and wait until somebody else has reorganised it all… [Quest] has to become an accepted vehicle of self-improvement and not just a badge of accreditation. It needs to become a kitemark of service effectiveness by measuring more of what we achieve and less of how we do it. And if we do this, we could make Quest the quality assurance mark for commissioners.”
• Martyn Allison’s article “Sport and/or health: the future of local authority sport and leisure services” was published in the November 2014 issue of the Leisure Review.

Sheppard to the rescue of synthetic sports surfaces
Martin Sheppard, the former legend of UK leisure management and current legend-in-waiting of the Australian leisure sector, has produced a maintenance guide for synthetic sports surfaces. Written in partnership with European synthetic specialist Alastair Cox, The Smart Guide to Maintaining Synthetic Sports Turf (Long Pile) has been published with the global synthetic surfaces market in mind but particularly aimed at the key investors in synthetic surfaces in Australia. “The average life expectancy of synthetic sports fields is around ten years and [each will] cost in excess of A$1.2 m to install,” Sheppard said. “Some purchasers believe the old sales spin that you can play on them 24 hours a day and no maintenance is needed. This isn’t true… If owners of synthetic fields do not maintain them properly their expected life will be significantly reduced.”
• You can access the document via www.smartconnection.net.au

Tennis needs parks and local authorities, says LTA head
Parks and partnerships with local authorities are crucial if British tennis is to thrive, according to the chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association, Michael Downey. In post since January 2014, Downey has spoken of the long-term failings of the LTA in halting the decline in participation numbers and the need to accept that traditional tennis clubs are not going to bring a new generation of players to the game. Speaking to the Guardian at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, Downey said that the fundamental problem the game faced was one of decline. “That’s a fact a lot of people have trouble accepting the but the reality is the truth,” he said. “We had nearly a million monthly players back in 2008-2009 and this year we had 694,000.” Although tennis clubs have epitomised middle-class suburbia for generations, Downey said that the clubs now recognise that they need new members and have to attract younger player. After decades of the LTA putting investing heavily in elite development and pinning its hopes on a British Wimbledon champion, the new approach will be to build a broad participation base. “We think growth is going to be in the parks,” he said. “We need to strike long-term agreements with local authorities.”

Swimming decline prompts price review
tmactive, the charitable trust that runs three facilities on behalf of Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, has announced that it will be reducing swimming charges to encourage local people back into the pool. The new pricing policy has been introduced in response to the findings of the Active People survey, which showed a decline in the number of people swimming weekly, but the price reductions will only apply for those who pay by direct debit or annually. Martin Guyton, tmactive chief executive, commented: “Our figures echo the national average. Swimming has long been the nation’s – and our – most popular sport. This is the first time we’ve ever seen a drop in the number of people swimming with us. Our key objective as a charitable trust is to get more people, more active, more often and make a real difference to the health and wellbeing of the local people whom we serve. We believe that, as a trust, it’s our responsibility to try and improve national activity averages at a local level, so we’ve made the decision to reduce our swim prices for regular swimmers at a time when many leisure centres are increasing their costs.” Asked by the Leisure Review why the price reduction was not being applied to casual swimmers, Guyton reiterated the trust’s aim of encouraging regular activity. “We therefore made the decision to reduce swim prices for those members who swim regularly, rewarding consistency and commitment and, in doing so, encouraging them to keep up a regular routine until exercise becomes habitual.”

Special events impact on tourism figures
The British Museum remains the most popular visitor attraction, topping the tables produced by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions on behalf of its 57 members and their total of 2,200 venues. A visitor total of 6.69 million put the British Museum just ahead of the National Gallery, which welcomed 6.41 million in 2014. Overall figures showed a rise of 6.5%, with Scotland’s attractions showing a 10% increase. The ALVA suggests that the commemorations of the first world war played a significant role in boosting numbers, with the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow bringing more people to Scottish attractions. Tourism generates an estimated £127 billion annually in the UK economy, making tourism the nation’s fifth-largest industry.

Perry pulls portrait punters
And talking of visitor numbers, Grayson Perry’s exhibition Who Are You? at the National Portrait Gallery has attracted unprecedented numbers of people to the gallery’s ranks of non-talking heads. According to the NPG’s acting director, Pim Baxter, “Grayson’s display had a considerable impact on the gallery… thousands of people were enjoying his work on a daily basis and the display drew them to parts of the gallery that they might not otherwise have explored.”

From the Garden to the gavel
Evidence that the reach of the leisure industry continues to extend to the most traditional of employment environments comes in the shape of Tad Smith, who has been appointed as chief executive of Sotheby’s. Smith joins the internationally renowned auction house from his post as head of Madison Square Garden, the arena in New York that is home to the New York Knicks basketball franchise and one of the spiritual homes of American boxing.

Public health in local hands
From April 2016 a new body will take control of Greater Manchester’s £6 billion budget for public health, social care, GP services, mental health, and acute and community care. The arrangement will make Greater Manchester the first region with devolved responsibility for its own NHS spending. Announcing the deal struck between NHS England and the region’s 10 clinical commissioning groups, the leader of Manchester city council, Sir Richard Lees, explained the benefits: “Instead of it all being commissioned by a mishmash of bodies, it will be commissioned in a joined-up, coherent way. There’s 40 years of evidence proving that the integration of health and social care can vastly improve early intervention, preventing patients becoming patients, and decreasing unnecessary and expensive admissions to hospital.” Labour reacted cautiously to the proposals, with Andy Burnham saying he was wary of anything that might lead to a two-tier system but acknowledging the potential benefits of integrated health and social care. A number of senior leisure professionals have also recognised the potential while expressing reservations, not least that the announcement of such a radical and potentially significant initiative should come shortly before a general election.

Academy of Medical Royal Colleges recommends activity for health
The latest documentary recognition of physical activity’s remarkable contribution to health comes from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, which has published a report titled The Miracle Cure and the Role of the Doctor in Promoting it. In the document’s foreword, Professor Dame Sue Bailey, the academy’s chair, states, “Physical activity is important in the management of long-term diseases, but, it is even more important in the prevention of many other common diseases. I believe that if physical activity was a drug it would be classed as a wonder drug”. In the section headed “the dos and don’ts of encouraging your patients to exercise” the report advises: “Signpost [patients] to somewhere. Work with your local authority, Health and Wellbeing Board, Public Health bodies, local sports partnership and others to find out what is possible locally. Consider ease of access.”
• Download the AMRC report via www.aomrc.org.uk/publications

Visitors welcomed to Bedlam again
The Bethlem Royal Hospital has invested £4 million in a new gallery and museum that will display and explore the history of one of the UK’s most famous health institutions. Now located in Beckenham in Kent, the hospital was founded in London in 1247 but became synonymous with mental health treatment as early as the 15th century. Popular usage constricted its name to Bedlam and as the hospital’s reputation as an asylum spread so this term entered the language. The museum’s curator, Victoria Northwood, has been careful to address the history of the hospital as openly as possible, including among the displays leather and iron constraints that were used to manage patients in the 19th century. Also on display, at the request of patients in the current secure unit, is a contemporary ankle tag that allows patients to move around the hospital grounds.

Super-highways get green light
Transport for London’s approval of plans for the creation of an extended and improved cycle network across the capital are likely to have a significant impact on how traffic is perceived and managed in the centre of London. The plans include upgrades to and extension of the current ‘cycle super-highways’ but attention has focused on two routes, running north-south and east-west across the city, that will provide cycle routes physically separated from other traffic. Fears that the new network would create traffic gridlock were rebutted by TfL, along with objections from Westminster council, the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association and the Canary Wharf Group. With work scheduled to begin shortly, discussions were being held with the Royal Parks to overcome their objection to segregated cycle lanes around Buckingham Palace. Meanwhile, TfL has announced record numbers for people using bikes around London. Figures for the fourth quarter of 2014 showed a 10% increase on the same quarter in 2013.

Film figures show benefits of tax credits
Figures from the British Film Institute (BFI) show that film-making in the UK generated £1.4 billion in revenue during 2014. The figure represents a 35% increase on the previous year and a record since the BFI started collating figures twenty years ago. They also represent justification for the British film industry’s campaign to persuade the Treasury to reinstate tax credits for film production within the UK.

Paolozzi mosaics go missing from public realm
Part of Sir Eduardo Paolozzi’s celebrated mosaic that adorned the walls of Tottenham Court Road tube station have been destroyed, prompting calls for a national register of works of art. The station is being extensively remodelled as part of the Crossrail project and some of the Paolozzi murals have been lost. Transport for London said that much of the mosaic work had been preserved but that some pieces of the work could not be saved. David Waboso, capital programme director with London Underground, explained that some panels had been removed temporarily and others were being restored and repaired. “We have made great efforts to plan for the retention and restoration of as many of the panels as possible,” he said.

Smithsonian for Stratford?
It seems that the Smithsonian could be coming to London. The board of the Washington-based museum has commissioned further research into the possibility of opening an outpost as part of a new cultural quarter on the London Olympics site. The Smithsonian was founded in 1829 with a bequest from James Smithson, an English scientist, and is now one of the most celebrated museums in the world, with 19 museums under its management and loan agreements with a further 168, all in the US. A London venue would be the museum’s first overseas venture.

Baby swimming market buoyant
The STA has updated its 2009 survey on the baby swimming market and found significant growth in demand. Among the 206 responses, 82% had experienced a significant rise in the numbers they teach weekly and nearly 70% said they had a waiting list. 86% were expecting a further rise in demand but there were fears that available pool time, the number of pools and the number of qualified teachers could hamper expansion.

Aquatic anniversary for London legacy
Sunday 1 March marked the first anniversary of the London Aquatics Centre as a public building and one of the most obvious legacies of London 2012. GLL, which manages the centre on behalf of London Legacy Development Corporation, revealed that 750,000 people had visited the venue in this period.

News in brief

The STA has produced a free activity booklet designed to teach children and their families about water safety beyond pool environment. The STA has also launched the Erewash Swim Academy in partnership with Erewash borough council at Victoria Park and West Park leisure centres. The ASA has appointed Nick Caplin to the post of director of participation, a role that will lead on growing swimming and aquatics participation in England. IQL UK, the trading subsidiary of the Royal Life Saving Society UK,has revised and relaunched its National Rescue Award for swimming teachers and coaches. GLL is opening an extreme sports facility at Barking Sporthouse and Gym, which will include London’s biggest indoor skate park and a climbing wall. Precor has added an exerciser activity report to its Preva system, which can provide detailed information about members’ equipment usage, patterns and preferences, and thus give operators “a business edge”. Brendon Batson from the Professional Players Association has been elected to the board of the Sport and Recreation Alliance, with Jane Bateman from the FA re-elected for a second three-year term. FitPro has appointed Terry Gibbs to the post of head of commercial development. Following the retirement of Dr Nicholas Penny, Dr Gabriele Finaldi has been appointed director of the National Gallery, who joins from his position as deputy director for collections and research at the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid and will take up his post in August.