IN the week that a young woman from Otley scooped a fantastic gold medal, the question of whether or not the country is doing enough to promote sport amongst our children could hardly be more topical.

And the fact the issue was raised by Commonwealth road race cycling champion Lizzie Armitstead's own grandmother, who presumably knows a thing or two about the subject, is yet further reason to take those concerns seriously.

There was plenty of alarm amongst local schools and national spots bodies when the Government announced in 2010 that it would be scrapping the £162 million a year School Sports Partnerships scheme.

The Youth Sport Trust described the move at the time as "a massive backward step on all that has been achieved in PE and sport over the past ten years", adding that it would weaken attempts to tackle the nation's growing childhood obesity problem.

Those fears were compounded when the Government later confirmed it would be scrapping compulsory targets for the minimum number of hours of physical education that schools needed to provide.

In both cases David Cameron and co argued that the changes were designed to give schools more "freedom" to develop a greater emphasis on competitive sport, rather than just "box ticking exercises".

But for most of us, regardless of our party political leanings, the logic behind each move seems highly dubious.

On a purely common-sense level, they look - as Lizzie's gran, Marjorie Dunn, claims - like ill thought out meddling that will actually end up costing the taxpayer more money rather than saving any.

If we want to reverse the trend and get more of our children fit again, then increasing sport participation for all our young people has to be clear priority - and we will reap the benefits later, too, when a healthier population puts less strain on our already overburdened health service.

As Mrs Dunn asks: "As the NHS bill for health problems caused by obesity continues to rise, does it not make sense for the Government to invest heavily in sports facilities and activities for all ages, everywhere?"

We would be very interested to hear the Government's answer.