IT is something that many a harried commuter or jostled pedestrian working their way along crowded city streets will have long suspected

But now it appears that modern urban living is indeed bad for your health, and high streets filled with betting shops, fast food outlets and off-licences could be significantly shortening lives.

Research by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) found that residents living in towns with lots of bookies and off-licences die younger than those with plenty of libraries and pharmacies.

The Health on the High Street: Running on Empty report used a scale giving points for pubs and bars, dentists, opticians, libraries, leisure centres, museums and galleries, pharmacies, coffee shops and vape shops.

Points were deducted for betting shops, payday lenders, fast food outlets, off licences, tanning salons and empty shops.

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The Herald:

The survey named Dundee as the most unhealthy in Scotland - despite its ongoing £1 billion waterfront regeneration of its waterfront and the arrival of the renowned museum of design, the V&A Dundee.

It may have gambled a lot on improving its image, but the city may now be thinking of tearing up it's betting slip after the RSPH placed it at number 12 in a league table of the unhealthiest cities in the UK. 

The ranking of 70 high streets found those living in the top 10 healthy areas lived an average of two-and-a-half years longer than those with the 10 unhealthiest high streets.

Grimsby was crowned the unhealthiest town, followed by Walsall and Blackpool, while Edinburgh was named as the healthiest. 

In total, six Scottish towns and cities were featured on the list, with Ayr placed 19th, Aberdeen 48th and Perth 49th. 

Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, was ranked 39th - above metropolis such as Manchester, Cardiff, Sheffield and Southampton. 

The list was first published in 2015 and was updated this year to reflect the changing face of the British high street.

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The Herald:

This year's version added off-licences and the growing number of empty shops to the list of negative features on a high street, while cafes and vape shops were added to the positive influences.

It ranked business premises according to their health effects, with fast food outlets scoring poorly because of the link to obesity and off-licences because of dangerous effects of alcohol on people's well-being.

Betting shops and payday lenders also provided negative points because of the stress associated with financial problems, while empty units were marked zero as they add nothing to the high street.

Conversely, cafes were praised for allowing people to meet and socialise while libraries gave access to information on good health and activities, while pharmacies scored highly because of the benefits their bring to communities. 

The research found that 4,000 new fast food outlets had opened across the UK in the past five years - predominantly in poorer areas.

Deprived areas now have five times more fast food shops than wealthy neighbourhoods, the RSPH said.

The Herald:

It showed that vape shops have doubled to 2,000 in the last three years, while the number of empty shops on the high street has increased from below 7 per cent in 2007 to 11% in 2017.

The findings come in the wake of the Chancellor's announcement in the autumn budget of several measures aimed at helping ailing high street shops facing decimation by their online rivals.

Philip Hammond announced that 500,000 small retailers will see a third knocked off their business rates, while a digital services tax will be levied at tech giants with global revenues above £500 million.

A £650 million fund was also announced to improve transport access for struggling town centres and to turn empty shops into homes and offices.

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The Herald:

Shirley Cramer CBE, chief executive of the RSPH, said: "While the face of the British high street continues to change, the environmental and economic factors that influence inequalities in health outcomes across the country remain stubbornly intractable.

"Our Health on the High Street rankings illustrate how unhealthy businesses concentrate in areas which already experience higher levels of deprivation, obesity and lower life expectancy.

"Reshaping these high streets to be more health-promoting could serve as a tool to help redress this imbalance."

She added: "While we broadly welcome the package of measures announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer this week, we are concerned that they do not go far enough."

She said local authorities were unable to reshape their high streets to promote positive businesses due to ongoing funding cuts.

The Herald:

Michael Chang, Project and Policy Manager at the Town and Country Planning Association, said: “We shouldn’t underestimate how important the British high street is to everybody’s daily lives and important contributing role town planners and the planning system have to effect change to healthier high streets."