COY0066

Written Evidence from Local Government Association

24 May 2018

Dear Sarah

Thank you for the opportunity to give evidence to your Committee’s inquiry into Childhood Obesity on behalf of the Local Government Association. During the evidence session, there were a few areas that your Committee members asked for further details on. I’m happy to set these out for you below.

Appeals against supplementary planning documents

Many local authorities have developed policies and guidance to control hot food takeaways. Some local authorities have chosen to develop specific supplementary planning documents (SPDs) to provide guidance to support existing or emerging development plan policies. Although an SPD does not have the same status as the development plan it is still an important material consideration in the determination of planning applications.

Councils have become increasingly concerned with the variability in the judgements used by Planning Inspectors. The inspectors in particular have not always been consistent in the judgements when appeals have been made.

For example, in allowing a planning appeal in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets the Inspector found that the council lacked the evidence to demonstrate an overconcentration of takeaways and the link between proximity to a school and childhood obesity. In response, the council produced a report, ‘Tackling the Takeaways’ as part of its Health Borough programme. The report provides evidence to support its policy approach towards food takeaways in its local plan.

In a planning appeal decision in Rotherham, the Inspector noted that a proposed KFC restaurant/takeaway drive through would be located approximately 40 metres from a primary school which holds a Healthy School certificate and provides a ‘nutritionally balanced breakfast and lunch and teaches its pupils the importance of a healthy lifestyle’.[i] The Inspector did accept that the health and wellbeing of residents was a material consideration. She noted that, as a primary school, children were not usually permitted to leave the school at lunchtime, and that ‘given the age of the children, it is unlikely that they would travel to and from school unaccompanied by an adult’. Therefore, she concluded that ‘I do not accept that the presence of a KFC restaurant/drive through would jeopardise the local healthy-eating initiatives’.

We accept that it can be difficult to prove a direct link between the proliferation of hot food takeaways and the causes of obesity, obesity is after all multi-faceted. Nonetheless, local authorities have sought to manage the proliferation of hot food takeaways as a method of combating their impact on the health and wellbeing of the community, in particular, children. Councils are looking to limit access to unhealthy foods to help reduce obesity levels and associated health concerns, and meet the objective of promoting healthy eating and lifestyles expressed in national, regional and local guidance and policy.

We believe that further research and perhaps legislative change may be required before an effective re-design of damaging food environments can be achieved.

Control of outdoor advertising

Local authorities are calling for additional powers to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food and drinks high in salt, fat and sugar. If the Government granted councils these powers, they would have the freedom to control the advertising of junk food and sugary drinks if they felt it was an issue that needed tackling in their area. This includes controlling the amount of advertising around schools, nurseries and other places where children and young people gather. We need to make changes to our environment if we are to fight obesity, and although this will not solve the obesity crisis by itself, being able to limit children’s exposure to unhealthy food products would be an important step forward.

Giving powers to town halls would make it much easier to control food and drink advertising near schools, if it was an option they wished to pursue. Under the current system, councils have no powers to control the content of advertising or its location. We are not saying every council should be using these powers, but it gives local authorities the option of working with parents and schools to ban junk food advertising near schools, nurseries and children’s centres, if they feel it can make a different and improve children’s health in their town or city.

Blackpool council was the first in the country to sign up to a Local Authority Declaration on Healthy Weight, which includes pledging to protect children from inappropriate marketing by the food and drink industry. Obesity rates are higher than the national average with a quarter of reception-age school children overweight (2600 pupils), compared to a fifth nationally, while more than a third of 11 year olds in the town are obese or overweight.[ii] The declaration on healthy weight is a joint strategy with other councils in the North West to tackle obesity, which is calling for stronger national controls on junk food advertising.

Further details on telephone boxes

Permitted development rights enable companies to install telephone boxes on our high streets without planning permission. A change in the law would give councils greater controls over the excessive numbers appearing on high streets, which in many cases, are little more than advertising billboards. We believe that the existing legislation in this area is out-of-date and was made pre-digital era, before mobile phones became widely used. While there is still a limited need for some telephone boxes in our town centres and cities, for example for emergencies, the number of applications councils have seen in the last 2 years is unreasonable.

Companies are exploiting a loophole in the law which only requires them to obtain an Ofcom license to install a telephone box. These telephone boxes are then being used as cheap and unregulated advertising spaces rather than for the original purpose of providing a place for people to use a phone. We have raising our concerns regarding this issue with MHCLG. Councils can object based on design and appearance, but in cases where the applicant appeals, the final decision would be made by the Planning Inspectorate. Last year, Primesight won the contract to sell advertising space on 19,000 BT telephone boxes across the country.[iii]

We took a sample of 12 council areas that showed a combined rise of 927 per cent in applications of telephone kiosks under permitted development rules between 2015 and 2017. The table below sets out our findings:

Further case studies on councils’ actions to tackle obesity

To coincide with the launch of phase two of the Child Obesity Plan, next month we will be publishing a further case studies document demonstrating local action to tackle child obesity. Once this report is published, I will ensure that my officers send a copy over to your Committee clerks. We have already published a number of these types of documents, which were included in our initial written evidence submission, however, I have detailed our existing case study reports below for your convenience:

• Tipping the Scales (https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/tipping-scales-case-studi-bff.pdf)

• Healthy weight, healthy futures: Local government action to tackle childhood obesity (https://www.local.gov.uk/healthy-weight-healthy-futures-local-government-action-tackle-childhood-obesity)

• Making obesity everybody’s business: A whole systems approach to obesity (https://www.local.gov.uk/making-obesity-everybodys-business-whole-systems-approach-obesity)

• Building the foundations - tackling obesity through planning and development (https://www.local.gov.uk/building-foundations-tackling-obesity-through-planning-and-development)

Finally, on 26 September the LGA will be hosting a free conference exploring the role of local government in tackling child obesity. If one of your Committee clerks would like to attend this event, please let our officers know (catharina.paul@local.gov.uk / 0207 664 3329) as we are committed to keeping you up to date on the important work councils are doing in this area.

Once again, many thanks for allowing me the opportunity to highlight the LGA’s concerns regarding the plans to tackle childhood obesity during your inquiry.

Yours,

Cllr Richard Kemp

Deputy Chair, LGA Community and Wellbeing Board

24 May 2018