PRIVATE companies should be encouraged to help run Merseyside’s parks to get more people outdoors, a milestone report aimed at improving the region’s health will urge today.

It is one of 12 recommenda-tions to come out of the Health is Wealth Commission, set up 18 months ago to end Liver-pool’s reign at the top of the ill-health league tables and tackle the growth of a “super underclass”.

The park idea does not advo-cate the privatisation of parks or charging for access, but is pushing for Merseyside to follow New York’s example, which created a not-for-profit firm to administer its famous Central Park for the city.

The commission also wants every man, woman and child to be given health MoTs tar-geted at reducing the impacts of alcohol, smoking, poor diet and lack of physical activity.

It has also suggested the signing of a concordat by public agencies which would commit them to buy a “good proportion” of goods and services from local sources to help create jobs.

A new North West Task Force should be set up to examine the causes of and contributors to the high level of Incapacity Benefit (IB) claims and worklessness in the Liverpool city region, the report states.

The commission also wants to see the creation of a world-class research institute to study local health and well-being issues, particularly conditions caused through inequalities and deprivation.

Sue Woodward OBE, who chaired the commission, will today present the group’s findings at Liverpool University which launched Health is Wealth.

She will say: “By taking action on these issues now, the commission very much hopes that its work might help once again, in the spirit of Dr Duncan, position the Liverpool city region as a pioneer in innovative approaches to public health.

“There is a real and tangible determination that we don’t want this to be just another report gathering dust, and, more than anything, a belief that seeing our proposals through to delivery can and will make a difference.”

The commission, which had 15 members from the public and private sector, was set up to come up with practical solutions to eliminating the region’s poor health standing.

In the city region, life expectancy is three years lower than the English average, and seven years less than parts of the South East.

People here are a third more likely to die from cancer and more than twice as likely to die from chronic liver disease than England as a whole.

The number of people receiving IB is 75% higher than the British average, with one in eight of the working-age population claiming IB.

As a result of these factors and many others, the cost of ill-health to the Liverpool city region is estimated to exceed £2bn.

In New York, the new Central Park group has successfully increased capital investment in the park since its creation in the early 1980s, and now raises through franchising income around 30% of the annual maintenance budget.

The commission wants a task group to investigate a new way of managing parks, which could include high-quality privately operated restaurants and cafes, boats for hire, children’s rides and other commercial concessions to encourage more people to use the green spaces.

Other suggestions in the report include:

The introduction of licensing forums designed to give local people a say on the impact in their neighbourhoods of licence applications;

A “kite mark” scheme to recognise businesses producing healthy food;

A “wellbeing at work charter” to set down standards for how the city region treats its workforce;

An accreditation programme to reward firms that promote work-based health and well-being;

The creation of a shared Occupational Health Service scheme to offer help to employees of small businesses unable to afford their own in-house OH services.

Last night, Liverpool City Council leader Warren Bradley pledged to push for the other five councils in the city region to endorse the concordat to use local providers where possible.

He said: “It is a brilliant idea that could create thousands of jobs for people across Liverpool and the city region, and substantially decrease the public sector's carbon footprint.

“If this is given proper endorsement by the public sector, there is no reason why we cannot then ask the private sector to sign up to the concordat.”

davidbartlett