David Farrar: No surprise – outlet bans don’t work

The BBC reports:

A plan to restrict the opening hours of fast food outlets near schools has failed to curb childhood obesity, with rates instead rising.

In 2014 Medway Council put rules in place which limited takeaways if they were located within 400m (1,312ft) of a school.

Public health activists seem to love these bans of anything within x metres of a school. As I have pointed out many times these are as the crow flies, so a 400 metre radius ban zone will cover an area of 50 hectares. In most cities it would ban them basically everywhere.

Public Health England data showed that 21.9% of reception children and 32.8% of year six children measured were either overweight or obese in Medway in 2013/14 – but 10 years on the rates have risen with 22.3% of Medway’s reception children and 37.4% of year six children being overweight or obese.

I am not surprised. The answer to child obesity is almost always parenting.

Councillor Teresa Murray, the authority’s deputy leader and chairwoman of the health and wellbeing board, said the council’s decision had been “the right one” but that “no single policy” could tackle the ever-growing epidemic of childhood obesity.

This means you can claim anything you do is the right decision, on the basis that no single policy works.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.