Sweet shops and takeaway outlets should be outlawed from trading near Scottish schools to combat obesity in children, TV cook and writer Prue Leith has said.
Calling for draconian measures, the Great British Bake Off judge warned that obesity was rising and Scotland’s diet was arguably even poorer than England’s.
Raising her concerns at a discussion at Queen Margaret University in Musselburgh, where she is chancellor, Ms Leith said: “The diet of the nation is getting worse. We have a huge obesity and diabetes problem [and] Scotland’s nutrition is probably worse even than England’s. However, a lot of [Scottish] policies are better [than in England]. We need draconian spending and quite a lot of legislation. For example, I don’t think it should be legal for sweet shops and chippies to open by the school gates.”
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Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum, backed Ms Leith’s call to outlaw junk food traders near schools and said more action was needed on burger vans at school gates after attempts to exclude traders were found to be unlawful.