Policy should be child's play

STRAIGHT TALK

- SUSAN LEE

As a kid, playing out was taken for granted. You'd disappear from home for hours on end to have fun with your mates, no real questions asked; it was just what you did at the weekend, after school or during the long summer holidays.

I lived in a built-up urban environment - no rambling through meadows or woods round our way - but it didn't matter; with your chums in tow, games of hide and seek to play, and maybe a few pence to spend on a lolly ice, life was pretty simple.

But none of us knew it, of course, but that experience of playing in the street or the fields or even on an old slag heap (sorry about the ruined shoes, mum) wasn't just fun, it was good for us.

Good for our physical health - all that fresh air and exercise - and great for our mental wellbeing.