THE idea that children should be encouraged to get out more and walk is a good one in an age when most are spending far too many hours in front of computer screens.

But there are limits to how far we should sensibly go to tempt youngsters to use their legs – and last week’s suggestion by Darwen councillor Simon Huggill goes well beyond that.

Coun Huggill has proposed that colour coded footpaths should be introduced in the town to help “children getting off the bus at The Circus to easily find their way to proper crossings for the Academy, to the leisure centre or even the library.”

There’s nothing new about the idea of colour coding to help people find their way about.

In forests, bushland and countryside all over Britain, Europe and even Australia walkers have long made use of coloured markings on trees or posts as direction indicators when they are following footpaths.

And in cities like Toronto and San Antonio, Texas, coloured coded pavements were apparently introduced in the 1990s to help people find their way. Many big cities including London and Boston have also long used decorated pavements as the basis for historical trails which tour various points of interest. But let’s slow down.

Darwen is most certainly not Boston, Toronto or San Antonio – in fact the town is essentially a linear conurbation either side of the North-South A666.

It’s difficult to think of a place in East Lancashire that is easier to find your way around.

And buildings like the new Academy and leisure centre are such dominant landmarks that they hardly need signposting. In fact only a person with severe sight problems would have a problem spotting them.

Another point is that most of our built-up areas are already cluttered up with more than enough signs on the pavements.

Then we have all the distracting things drawn on the road itself like those cycle paths that appear, disappear and then appear again making you wonder if people on two wheels are supposed to dismount and carry their bikes until they see the next lot of markings.

Finally there are all those chunks of bright red that have appeared on urban and rural roads throughout East Lancashire in the past couple of years.

As a motorist they do alert me but I am surely not alone in having no idea what they are supposed to be alerting me to – except perhaps that the local authority came upon a job lot of red paint at a price that made it irresistible.