School Gate blog: Ed Balls warns against takeaways near schools

Local authorities are resorting to more aggressive policies to combat junk food in schools amid signs that government efforts to combat childhood obesity are failing.

A London council is to become the first in the country to ban new fast-food outlets from opening within 400 metres of schools, parks and other places where young people gather.

Waltham Forest council, in East London, aims to limit the number of fast-food outlets that can be opened in town centres and shopping parades, and to restrict their opening hours.

Clyde Loakes, leader of the council, said: “We have too many fast-food outlets in this borough and we've had enough. We don't want to tell people how to live their lives - but at the moment residents simply don't have enough choice because of the amount of fast-food takeaways.”

Research suggests that the Government is failing in one of its key battles against obesity, with children bingeing on junk food even when healthy options are the only item on menus. The study, by City University London, shows that even when schools forbid students from leaving the grounds during the day, some will skip lunch and save their money for fast-food outlets on the way home.

Although campaigns to raise awareness about the benefits of healthy food appear to have worked, students said that junk food was better value.

Martin Caraher, who conducted the study, said that he was surprised to find such high numbers of children ignoring healthy food initiatives.

In Tower Hamlets, East London, where students were interviewed for the research, 97 per cent of households lie within a ten-minute walk from a convenience food seller. In some areas, Dr Caraher said, there were more fast-food outlets than shops. “Children have developed a strong taste for this type of food and that's hard to combat,” he said.

He said that heavily subsidising healthy food at school canteens, or making it free, could encourage more students to eat healthy food.

City University interviewed more than 50 schoolchildren, aged between 8 and 13.

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