Never fear, the Natural Health Service will sort you out. Launched last month (amid surprisingly little publicity), this is Natural England’s latest initiative to tackle the countrys growing rates of obesity.

The Natural England website claims that by 2050, 90% of adults will be overweight or obese. I’m not so sure about this rather spurious statistic myself, but one that is irrefutable is that 18% of children in London are currently classed as obese. Even Jamie Oliver may struggle to sort that one out on his own.

So the latest idea is to get people using London’s ‘greenspaces’ more. We are rather spoilt for choice; even if you live away from the centre of town there’s Richmond Park, Greenwich Park and Bushy Park. The Natural Health Service is encouraging people to make the most of these areas; volunteering for conservation projects, going for a walk or jog, or simply relaxing in them.

Football fun in Hyde Park. Courtesy of Deror avi

This is not the first time that the benefits of green spaces have been proclaimed. Many studies have found that people who live near parks or green areas (and therefore presumably visit them more than people who live far away) have both better physical and mental health. Now researchers from Bristol have found, more specifically, that people who have easy access to areas of green space are more likely to be physically active and much less likely to be obese.

On this basis, Natural England is aiming to increase the number of households within a five minute (300m) walk of an open space at least two football pitches big. I’m not really sure how they plan to do this – roof gardens have been mentioned but it would have to be a very big roof, and I doubt the government will be willing to knock down a few blocks of flats to make way for a park. The scheme may not get the support they’re expecting either; when I mentioned it to a friend, there were immediate mumblings of “yoofs” and “hoodies” and “white lightening”…

So for now it would appear that we will have to make do with the existing parks. Not that I’m complaining, I have two near me, but apparently sitting looking at them won’t make me thin. Best get my running shoes on then.