Councillor blames shocking levels of obesity in Northumberland on kids' obsession with fast food such as Greggs

The statistics, from 2020/21, show that 15.3% of children aged 10-11 were overweight, while 18.9% were obese and 5.8% were severely obese.

In comparison, 72.3% children in reception (aged four to five) were at a healthy weight over the same period. In 21/22, the numbers had improved slightly – 35.4% of children in reception were overweight or obese while for children in year six, that figure stood at 38.1%.

The data was collected as part of an annual report by Northumberland County Council’s director of public health, which looked at achieving a healthy weight for all children. It identified a number of barriers to healthy eating, including increasing portion sizes, the impact of technology on children’s play, and the large amount of fast food outlets on the high street.

Speaking at a meeting of Northumberland County Council’s Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee,report’s author Kaat Marynissen explained that family budgets also played a significant role.

She said: “We know that healthy weight is important and is linked to lower rates of mental health issues, better school attainment and increased life expectancy.

“We’re seeing increased rates of obesity in adults and children. Boys are more affected than girls and the rate spiked in 20/21 due to Covid. Since then there has been a slight improvement, but we are still worse than pre-pandemic.

“There is a very clear link between obesity and inequality.”

Conservative councillor Colin Hardy, who represents the Norham and Islandshires ward, blamed what he called a “Greggs diet” for the issue. He also criticised an increase in red tape around volunteers helping young people exercise.

He said: “We need to look at ourselves as a society and roll back the years.

"I used to be a coach in Berwick, we had a running club which was very successful. Legislation came in that meant I had to go away on different training courses and parents had to go on them too if they wanted to help.

“We are the people who are responsible for where we’re at because we took away the right to exercise children round the streets and placed fines for people who wanted to get fit called gym memberships.

“Greggs has announced it will open 150 new stores. We’re going to live with obesity as long as we feed kids a Greggs diet – other fast food outlets are available.

"In Berwick, there’s always a queue of cars at McDonalds.”

According to the report, the most deprived families would have to spend 47% of their income to afford the government-recommended healthy diet. In comparison, the least deprived families would only have to spend 11% of their disposable income.

The report recommended looking at ways homes, communities, schools and healthcare systems could better look at supporting children to lead healthy lives, as opposed to putting the emphasis on “individual responsibility”.

It also suggested working “upstream to filter the flow of less healthy options” with families and communities. The committee agreed to support the recommendations.

Greggs has been contacted for comment.