CITY’S SUGAR FIZZER

Council rec centres drag their feet on cutting out sugar

THE City of Greater Geelong has watered down a soft drink withdrawal at its recreational centres, revealing only two facilities have banned sugary drinks.

The council committed to a “staged withdrawal” of sugar sweetened beverages from all council operated community facilities by July last year, according to its “Healthy Choices — Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Strategy”. But more than a year past deadline, just two council facilities — The Arena and Lara Pool — have completely removed sugary drinks, out of about 10 listed on the council’s website.

City of Greater Geelong community life director Robyn Stevens said five facilities had taken steps to implement the withdrawal by reducing sugary beverages to 20 per cent or less of all drinks.

But a total ban had not yet been implemented across all council-operated facilities.

“The City will continue to work with all our owned and operated leisure and recreation facility cafes and canteens to ensure they continue to reduce and maintain removal of sugar sweetened beverages into the future,” Ms Stevens said.

“This year, we will also encourage all other leisure and recreation facilities in Geelong to follow our example.”

The council strategy also aimed to support communityrun facilities to reduce the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages by the end of 2019.

Rethink Sugary Drink Coalition spokeswoman Jane Martin urged Geelong council not to slide from its commitment.

“There is a commitment there but they might need to look at it again if things have slowed down,” she said.

“I would encourage the council to keep going down this track as it’s clearly something that’s harmful to health.

“It’s important to keep the pressure on and keep moving forward.”

The Geelong Advertiser understands sugary drinks will finally be banned at council-run facilities by next June.

A Victorian Population Health Survey revealed the City of Greater Geelong is the sixth highest consumer of soft drinks in Victoria.

VicHealth healthy eating spokeswoman Jane Potter said the lessening of soft drink availability at the centres had been “incredibly successful”.

“We’ve been conditioned to think these kind of unhealthy drinks go hand-in-hand with sport,” she said.

The soft drink ban comes as research recently revealed the biggest soft-drink guzzling suburbs in the region, with some residents splurging close to $500 a year on the fizzy fix.

Residents in Bannockburn spent the most at $432 a year, Lara following close behind at $426 and Corio-Norlane at $411.