Town hall chiefs back fight against childhood obesity
THE council hosted a summit in the fight against childhood obesity.
In the Rochdale borough, 35.5 per cent of year six children are overweight or obese, which is the fifth highest percentage in Greater Manchester.
Rochdale council has pledged its commitment to reducing levels of childhood obesity.
A summit, held at Cartwheel Arts in Heywood, consisted of presentations, activities and interactive workshops to help attendees think about the scale of the issue, the barriers, how to overcome them and how to work together to support children and their families.
National speakers, including professor Simon Capewell from the University of Liverpool, Robin Ireland from Food Active and Healthy Stadia and Steve Morton from Public Health England attended the event to give their take on how to tackle obesity at national and local levels.
Attendees at the summit ●●Robin Ireland of Food Active and Healthy Stadia, Andrea Fallon, the council’s director of public health and wellbeing, Coun Jacqueline Beswick, cabinet member for health and wellbeing and Coun Donna Martin, cabinet member for children’s services, with the Healthy Heroes were asked to make pledges on how they as individuals and organisations can contribute towards reducing childhood obesity.
Councillor Donna Martin, the cabinet member for children’s services, said: “Preventing and reducing childhood obesity won’t be achieved by any single agency or group on its own. This is a key public health priority for the council, and while there is already some great work happening across the borough, there are lots of new opportunities we can explore.”
The event also saw the launch of the new childhood obesity communications campaign the ‘Rochdale Borough’s Healthy Heroes’ a superhero family whose aim is to fight for a healthy borough by sharing nutrition and physical activity advice with children and families. The heroes will be out and about later in the year.
For more information visit rochdale.gov.uk/ healthyheroes