BLACKBURN with Darwen has been chosen as one of 13 local authorities across the country working towards becoming a child obesity trailblazer.

But councillors and health bosses were warned they should not be obsessed with targeting takeaways to tackle obesity because wider factors were at play.

Council bosses are now putting forward a submission for the programme, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and managed by the Local Government Association, in the hopes of becoming one of five successful authorities chosen to undertake a three year programme.

Figures published last year showed Blackburn with Darwen has the highest proportion of severely obese primary school leavers in East Lancashire.

Nationally, a record number of primary school children are leaving school severely obese, according to the figures from Public Health England.

The data from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) for children for the year 2016/17 detailed the trends in severe obesity for the first time, with 4.86 per cent of children leaving Blackburn primary schools severely obese, compared with an average of 4.06 per cent across the whole of England.

The council has also secured £10million in Sport England funding to be spread over three years, which will be used to encourage the 10 per cent of least active people in the borough to take up some form of physical activity.

Director of adult services and prevention, Sayyed Osman, said: “With obesity, we should not be obsessed with takeaways.

“Some of it is because the communities affected are the most deprived and there are issues around food poverty and affordable warmth. Long term, if we want to tackle behaviour we have to look at underlying causes.”

Public health director Dominic Harrison added: “We created a special framework on a health basis - especially obesity and diabetes.

“Clearly we have got big challenges with some fast food outlets but we are making progress and we have to work with them because you can’t just shut them down. It’s not about looking at one person and saying ‘you’re a bit obese - do some running and eat a bit less’.”

Cllr Brian Taylor, executive member for health and adult social care, said: “We already do consider the density of fast food outlets and opening hours as well but it’s only for new applications.”