A " health tax " ?

It is absolutely certain that any idea of a new tax is swiftly taken up by all those in a similar situation.

Many Sydney councils charge a fee when personal trainers use parks or beaches to improve the health of their clients. Wollongong council is salivating at the chance to extract additional money from publicly owned land.

One of the problems is the method of setting this fee. The council is considering calling tenders for the use of suitable places. This will disadvantage smaller groups and may end up placing facilities in the hands of a monopoly - resulting in sky high prices for any training activities held outside gymnasiums.

A fairer system would simply involve a fee per person - which would allow the trainer of a small group to compete on equal terms with the big companies offering health training.

Such a fee should not be restricted to a particular facility. Trainers may wish to range their training activities over many different venues, from calisthenics in the park to a hard slog up sand hills to achieve peak fitness.

The question of fees for those providing fitness training also raises the question of whether council should be seeking money - or encouraging public health by letting publicly owned parks and beaches be used free of charge.

This seems to go in tandem with the present debate on installing parking meters. Our streets are public property - paid for by a mix of government taxes and council rates.

The same criteria applies to parks and beaches - and many pieces of public land was originally a gift bestowed on council by citizens.

There may be a case for parking meter money being used to pay for off-street parking facilities, but it is drawing a rather long bow to slug the citizens and their trainers for the chance to live a longer life !

Maybe it's time council did a little navel gazing - and reconsidered it's priorities !