Fast food shops 'should be banned within 400m of every school in the UK’ to tackle childhood obesity

Fast food shops should be banned from opening anywhere near schools across Britain to stop a rise in childhood obesity, doctors have urged.

Figures show almost one in 10 four and five-year-olds have hit dangerously fat levels, while obesity among children in the first year of primary school rose for a second year in a row in 2016/17, according to NHS Digital data.

Doctors say that one measure to tackle the crisis would be to let authorities stop fast food shops opening within 400 metres of every school in the UK.

The proposal should form part of the Government’s updated childhood obesity strategy, due to be published this summer, according to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Daily Telegraph reported.

President Professor Russell Viner told the paper: ‘Kids are coming out of school hungry and finding themselves surrounded by cheap chicken shops, chip shops and other types of junk food.

‘This just wasn’t the case 20 or 30 years ago.

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‘People tend to eat what’s in front of them and we need to make it easier for children to make the right choices.’

Another proposal would reportedly see children regularly weighed and measured from birth through adolescence.

The Commons Health and Social Care Committee will next month hold hearings on the issue, with the Royal College reportedly calling for the measures as part of a submission.

Another study from University College London last year found more than one in three teenagers is overweight or obese.

Deprived areas of the country are particularly affected, with more than double the number of obese children compared to more affluent areas.