Why basic infrastructure such as footpaths should be high priority

This morning I saw a couple of little kids riding their tiny bicycles to school.

It looked like tough work.

The reason why it was tough work is simple: there was no footpath.

Dad was walking alongside them, while mum was up ahead in the car.

Many people lament that the good old days when kids walked or cycled to school are gone.

Mostly this has happened because parents worry about the safety of their kids.

As a result, helicopter parenting has become the norm and most kids are driven to and from school.

It’s probably one of the causes of obesity in young people.

But that’s another issue and what I’d like to tackle here is the lack of basic infrastructure such as footpaths in 2017.

I think that whether kids are allowed to walk or ride to school there should be a concrete footpath available between a local school and most of the homes around it.

I am sure that’s already the case in most local schools but where we fall down is in semi rural parts of each local government area, which is the case for all of the councils in the south west region.

No doubt it costs a lot of money to build footpaths but it should be every resident’s right to have one that they can use to push a pram or ride a bicycle to get to school or the local shops.

Basic services such as being connected to the sewer or having footpaths should be a minimum standard in this day and age.

It’s true that local councils have been forced into new areas like child care and which cost a lot of money to run.

But they must somehow find the money to provide basic infrastructure, whether it’s street lighting or footpaths.

In this case we need to do whatever we can to encourage kids to walk to school – or ride a bicycle.

And that means building footpaths wherever they are needed.

After all, parents of school kids are also ratepayers.