Junk food advertising ban in Brighton and Hove edges closer

A ban on fast food adverts on council-owned sites across Brighton and Hove has edged closer after councillors gave their backing.

The proposal is aimed at tackling burgeoning childhood obesity, with the problem having worsened during the coronavirus pandemic.

Councillors asked officials to explore a ban on adverts for junk food and energy drinks and assess the success of similar schemes in London, Bristol and Barnsley.

Brighton and Hove City Council aims to follow Transport for London’s lead by banning fast food advertising from its bus shelters and hoardings.

The council’s Adult Social Care and Public Health Sub-Committee were told that an audit carried out over Easter found that almost 8 per cent of bus shelter adverts were for fast food.

Conservative councillor Dawn Barnett said that there was more to childhood obesity than food when the sub-committee met at Hove Town Hall on Tuesday (14 June).

She said: “Children don’t get the exercise now. They come home from school, sit in their bedrooms with their computer, and that’s the end of it.

“There’s not very much PE and competitiveness in schools because they don’t like being competitive because they don’t want anyone to feel they’ve lost out.

“It’s not just about food. It’s a way of life. I’ve never eaten a burger in my life. I never will do. The smell of them cooking is enough to put me off.

“I honestly don’t think that seeing an advert on a board is going to make me want to go and buy a burger.”

Councillor Barnett said that children should be going to the park and exercising – and that junk food was becoming a way of life that’s impossible to stop.

Labour councillor Alan Robins cited George Orwell’s point about “three penn’orth” of chips being a “proper treat” in The Road to Wigan Pier.

He said: “I think that’s what we’re battling in some cases here. If you haven’t got a great deal to look forward to, a bag of chips seems like a wonderful thing or an ice cream. It’s not straightforward but let’s hope it helps.”

Green councillor Sue Shanks said that a lot of factors contributed to obesity and the council was trying to do what it could.

Councillor Shanks said: “We do have healthy weight stuff. We do a lot of physical activities in schools.

“Children are walking less and that’s because so many people are in cars and don’t want to walk to school, which is a useful thing to do.”

She said that the government needed to take action nationally to reduce sugar and fat in foods.

A report to councillors said: “The latest data shows that only two out of three (66 per cent) of children leaving primary school aged 11 are a healthy weight. Those who are overweight or obese has increased from 30 per cent to 34 per cent in the past year.”

The joint Labour opposition leader Carmen Appich said that she was pleased to see backing for the advertising ban but was disappointed that the government had “rowed back” on its drive for healthy food in the National Food Strategy.

Councillor Appich said: “The advertising of junk food and targeting children and families is really clever, designed to present the worst kinds of low-nutrient empty calories as delicious and harmless when in fact it isn’t. It’s harmful.

“It’s just as harmful in some ways over a period of years as smoking and alcohol can be because it causes obesity, cancer and so on.”

Green councillor Sarah Nield, who chairs the sub-committee, said: “As a parent trying to feed her children healthy food, to be coming up against the pester power that is the result of the advertising of unhealthy food to them is a constant battle.

“Anything we can do to take that pressure off parents is a good thing.”

Officials are expected to prepare a report on fast food advertising for the council’s Health and Wellbeing Board in November.