CONCERNS have been raised councillors will be asked to tell residents they are fat under new recommendations aimed at improving residents’ health.
A tackling obesity report published this week calls for borough councillors to attend health chat training so they can ‘feel confident about discussing healthy lifestyle issues with people’.
It would give councillors the skills when talking to residents to raise issues around their health, including weight, and help motivate and direct them to organisations who could help them make changes.
The move follows an investigation by a panel of councillors into what is being done in Redditch to tackle rising obesity rates and how much of a contribution Redditch Borough Council could make.
Some 65.9 per cent of over 16-year-olds across the borough are carrying excess weight according to
statistics released by Public Health England – equivalent to about 42,000 adults – with 22.9 of them being obese.
Obesity costs Worcestershire’s NHS £80million a year and the local economy another £60million.
But the idea of health chat training sparked concerns amongst councillors who said they were uncomfortable with the suggestion when it was put to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee during a meeting on Tuesday (March 3).
Coun Carole Gandy said: “I would find it very difficult as a councillor, as a lay person not a medical person, to actually broach the subject of somebody’s weight.
“I think officers could probably get away with it because they are seen as officials but I’m not sure councillors would. I would be really nervous about it.”
Coun Pat Witherspoon added if someone approached her and said they did not think there was anywhere for their child to play for example, she would feel confident telling them there was but she would find it ‘a little bit difficult’ to specifically link any issues they were facing with their weight.
But Coun Jane Potter, who led the review, insisted councillors would not have to ‘tell’ residents to do anything.
“It’s about informing them of the options. We are not suggesting going out and telling people they’re fat. But I think it’s useful to know what’s going on out there,” she said.
“We don’t want to ridicule people or force them into anything, but we want to make people aware of what’s available for people who want to lose weight and help them with the motivation to do it.”
The report also recommended investigating the creation of a special planning document for hot food takeaways to restrict where they could be placed. Research suggests obesity levels are higher in areas where there is a high concentration of takeaways, but the council already has planning rules to restrict the number of fast food outlets allowed in district centres.
Other recommendations, which will now be considered by the council’s executive committee, include putting together a communications strategy to promote healthy eating projects and keeping GPs up to date with healthy eating and physical activities going on within the borough.
