Report of the Month - How healthy is Rush Main Street ?
We assess the Main Street in Rush using an objective rating system devised by experts to see how the design and layout can affect people’s health
everything into account, they were deemed to receive a negative rating.
L ast June, the Irish Times published an article called “How Healthy is Your Street,” by Jennifer O’Connell. The general idea was to use an unbiased method of rating the impact of the physical environment on the health of people living in an area. The methodology was developed by the British Royal Society for Public Health, and The Irish Times employed a group of experts to compare 10 sample streets around the country. The aim was not to make a “best to worst” league table, but to spark off a conversation about how our main thoroughfares can be designed in such a way as to enhance the quality of life of residents. The scoring system awarded high marks for the presence of socially beneficial outlets, such as health centres, fitness clubs, surgeries and pharmacies, and marks were docked for what were perceived as negatives, such as bookmakers, off licences, and take -aways. Pubs posed a bit of a dilemma for the marking system, because they play an important part of Irish community life, but they can also negatively affect physical and mental health, so taking
It would be possible to enter into an endless debate about the relative merits of the marks for each type of outlet, but it has to be said that the overall scores were pretty much what might be expected, so on balance, the system seems to give an accurate comparison between streets. In the report, Lahinch scored highest, with 202 marks, Greystones came next on 124 marks, Waterford and Ranelagh both scored 100, and at the other end of the scale, the newly gentrified Stoneybatter in Dublin got 70, despite being recently named as one of the 50 “coolest” neighbourhoods in the World, and at the bottom of the class, Clondalkin got 48 marks, Drogheda got 36, and poor old Ballinasloe finished up with a miserable 28 points. The writer encouraged readers to carry out a self- assessment of the main street in their own locality and as we are always up for a challenge, we did just that, and here’s how it went.
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