CHICKEN TOWN PROJECT HELPING TO FIGHT CHILD OBESITY

LOCAL authorities are now responsible for improving public health and this is leading to London’s boroughs supporting some ground-breaking community projects, including the new healthy eating outlet, Chicken Town, which is currently crowdfunding so that it can offer Tottenham’s young people an alternative to the ubiquitous chicken shop.

In contrast to the 8,000-plus chicken shops selling cheap, highfat, high-salt foods, Chicken Town plans to serve better quality chicken using higher quality oils, minimising frying times (by steaming it first), lowering sodium levels, and having a farm-to-table ethos while operating as a neighbourhood restaurant in the evening. Tottenham has some of the highest child obesity rates in the UK, with more than 40 per cent of 11-year-olds classified as obese. The project, which will be run as a Community Interest Company, will also create new jobs for local young people, paying staff the London Living Wage. Chicken Town has already signed up to the Haringey 100 — a council-led initiative to create 100 new apprenticeships in 100 days for local young people — and is supported by the Mayor of London’s High Street Fund. With the recent Royal Society for Public Health report identifying the worst high streets for public health (four of the top 10 were in Tower Hamlets or Haringey), public health is also an area where local government professionals have scope to be innovative. For example, planners at the London Borough of Waltham Forest will refuse planning permission to hot food takeaways if they are 400 metres or less from a school.