Last updated 10:00, Friday, 21 March 2008

CUMBRIA’S new director of public health says Workington’s Moss Bay residents have the worst life expectancy in Cumbria.

Professor John Ashton has produced a report, called Health in Cumbria 2008, exploring the major health challenges in the county.

In Moss Bay, life expectancy is 72 years. In Greystoke, near Penrith, people can expect to live until they are 93.

Prof Ashton said: “Health professionals must make it their priority to target areas such as Moss Bay to give everybody an equal chance of life.”

Life expectancies vary by 21 years but Prof Ashton, at the report’s launch in Carlisle, said health professionals would work with GPs to lower blood pressure and cholesterol in patients and reduce the risk of heart disease, the county’s biggest killer.

“We need to focus health service resources to make sure they are reaching these people who, from a social justice point of view, should be a priority,” he said.

“There are things we can do, even if their health is already damaged, to give them at least a few more years.”

He said there was evidence that younger people were not going to live as long as their grandparents because they are getting fatter and becoming unhealthier.

“It seems that we have had this golden generation but our culture has changed to become much more home-based and sedentary,” he added.

He said: “Our culture has been affected by all kinds of factors - less manual work, the arrival of the car - it is all resulting in people taking less exercise but still eating the same sorts and amounts of food. Cumbria is a natural gymnasium with the national park and huge forest areas.

“We want to get more young people involved in outdoor activities through schools and youth groups. That way our children are not sitting around watching television, eating junk food and eventually starting drinking and smoking.”

Moss Bay residents said that they were disappointed with the findings.

Hilary Raggatt, 56, of Salisbury Street, said that the area had improved a lot over the years.

She said: “I am so shocked, I can’t believe it. I would think that there will be worse places than Moss Bay. There are a lot of old people and they have lived here all of their lives.

“I definitely don’t get the impression that people are living for a shorter time and I am totally shocked.”

Lilian Baldry, former Allerdale councillor for Moss Bay, said that South Workington Neighbourhood Management Partnership had been working hard to improve the area.

Mrs Baldry, of Cedar Court, Salterbeck, thought problems were caused by a lack of funding in the area.

She added: “We need to try and get some extra money in these areas and do something about health and education. The partnership is trying the make a difference and get the funding.”

“We have got to welcome that report because it is reality and what we have got to do is to respond to that.

“All the public agencies have a simple responsibility to start to target areas and put more energy into making neighbourhoods a better place to live.

Barbara Cannon, chairwoman of the neighbourhood management board, said: “Since it started two years ago there has been a lot of people doing a lot of work in South Workington to turn the ship around.”