Issue - meetings

1.       The Board gave consideration to a motion which had been referred from the Council meeting held on 11^th September 2019.

          “Ban on Fast Food and Energy Drinks Advertising

‘Council notes that:

·       Fast food contains high level of fats, salt and sugar and energy drinks often contain high levels of caffeine and sugar.

·       Excessive consumption of these products contributes to obesity, tooth decay, diabetes, gastro-intestinal problems, sleep deprivation and hyperactivity.

·       The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health predicts half of all children in the UK will be overweight or obese by 2020.

·       The Mayor of London banned all fast food advertising on publically-controlled advertising spaces across London’s entire transport network.

·       Sustain and Foodwatch recently published a report ‘Taking Down Junk Food Adverts’ which recommends that local authorities regulate adverts on public telephone boxes and that the Advertising Standards Authority should be able to regulate advertising outside nurseries, children’s centres, parks, family attractions and leisure centres.

As a local authority with a statutory responsibility for public health, Council believes that it should do all that is possible to discourage the consumption of fast food and energy drinks.

Council therefore resolves to:

·       Ask the Chief Executive to write to the Chief Executive of Transport for Greater Manchester asking TFGM to impose a ban on the advertising of fast food and energy drinks on publicly owned poster sites etc across the Greater Manchester transport network.

·       Ensure that fast food or energy are not advertised on any hoarding or within any building owned by this Council including large advertisements on bus stops. 

·       Ensure that such products are not sold to children or young people on any of our premises.

·       Ask our NHS, social housing, voluntary and private sector partners, including the Mayor of Greater Manchester, to make a similar undertaking.

·       Ask the Chief Executive to write to the relevant minister requesting the recommendations of the ‘Taking Down Junk Food Adverts’ report be adopted as government policy as soon as possible; copying in our local members of Parliament to seek their support.’

It was recommended to the Overview and Scrutiny Board that the motion be referred to the Health Scrutiny Committee.

2.       Tackling Speeding

The Board gave consideration to an update on the ‘Tackling Speeding’ motion which had been referred to the Board by Full Council.  A workshop had been held on 24 September 2019.  The workshop discussed the areas for further exploration in the motion with representatives from Highways.

RESOLVED that:

1.       The motion related to ‘Ban on Fast Food and Energy Drinks Advertising’ be referred to the Health Scrutiny Committee.

2.       The areas for further exploration as outlined in the report related to the ‘Tackling Speeding’ motion be agreed.