WHEN we look around or turn on the television, we are confronted almost on a daily basis with reports of how we are all so fat and how this is going to cut short our lives prematurely. I can't help wondering if this is because we live in Thirsk.

Why? Because the council keeps allowing all the footpaths to be shut.

Thirsk Auction Mart diverted the footpath when it chose to build on prime waste land (never mind, we'll just import all our food) and since then it has stuck two unlit foot-long steel fences blocking the path. Yes, they've put a gate in but it’s usually locked. If by chance you're Spiderwoman and manage to leap over the obstacle, you're faced with a huge pile of soil blocking the park, then a cess-pit.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I have complained to the Auction Mart and the council.

This is before we get to the dozen or so other paths that have been wilfully blocked off – access towards York Road for example, or all the others that 'end' at a dual carriageway because it was deemed too expensive to build a footbridge.

My advice to the good people of Thirsk is to run across the dual carriageway – it’s a) good exercise and b) we're all going to die of obesity anyway as we have nowhere to walk, so we might as well risk the traffic.

J Goodyear, Thirsk.