Calls for junk food ad ban on Brighton and Hove buses and trains
It's being proposed to help cut rates of child obesity
Fast food advertising could be banned on buses and trains in the Brighton and Hove area if councillors get their way.
They voted to ask Brighton and Hove Buses and train operator Southern to scrap adverts for fast food and energy drinks across the local transport network.
And they called for an audit of fast food or energy drink adverts at bus stops, on council-owned hoardings and in any council building.
They also want to lobby the government to “take down junk food adverts” in a similar manner to the ban on tobacco advertising.
The vote followed a debate at the Brighton and Hove City Council meeting at Hove Town Hall last Thursday (April 7th).
Councillors were told that 14,000 children and more adults were overweight Brighton and Hove. By the time local children started secondary school, 15 per cent were seriously overweight and had tooth decay.
Labour councillor Amanda Evans proposed a motion at the meeting of the full council and said: “Advertising targeting children and families is very clever and insidious.
“All jolly music and primary colours, it’s designed to present the worst kinds of low-nutrient, high-chemical, high-fat, high-sugar food as yummy, fun and essential to wellbeing.
“It’s designed to have kids pester their parents to let them have it.”
Councillor Evans said that she liked a piece of cake and a glass of wine as much as the next person but it was a “slippery slope” into fast food and energy drinks that damaged people’s health.
She said that bans worked, citing Transport for London which banned junk food advertising in 2018 and a peer-reviewed study published this year by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
It showed, she said, that consumption of food that was high in fat, salt and sugar fell by 1,000 calories a week per person. And there was a 20 per cent drop in confectionary sales.
Conservative councillor Garry Peltzer Dunn broadly agreed with Councillor Evans but said that he could not support a proposed audit of the food and drink that was sold in council-owned premises.
Councillor Peltzer Dunn said that there was little that the council could do because it owned the freehold of 170 local shops and could not ban sales without amending their leases.
He said: “I cannot see the point of such a request. I understand, coming from the heart, why the request was made. From my head, I’m saying we can’t use the information.
“I think it’s an empty vehicle. It would cost money. We all heard that money is really tight – and it is. Should we waste money on what would be a pointless exercise?”
Green councillor Martin Osborne agreed that it would be too hard and too expensive to audit every outlet in council-owned premises. But backed an audit of advertising, describing it as a “productive use of officer time”.
Councillor Osborne said: “Fast food and energy drink advertising is a problem. These are things that are too often aggressively advertised to young people from all angles whether it’s online, social media, TV or physical adverts around the city.”
He said that Green Party policy was to ban all advertising that targeted children but added that that was a “debate for another time”.
Independent councillor Tony Janio was the lone voice against the proposals and described the motion as a form of control.
Councillor Janio said: “If you ban me from advertising smoking, we can agree that’s a bad thing. Who is going to decide what (food and drink) is bad for me and good for me?
“Councillor Osborne has widened it out to looking in the future at banning other things. We might even ban meat advertising. Let’s have ‘Meat-Free Mondays’ back.
“Why don’t we ban cars on the Old Shoreham Road advertising. He’s just opened it up to control our lives.”
Labour councillor Clare Moonan said that it might not be possible to audit sales at the council-owned Marks and Spencer premises, in Western Road, Brighton, but it was possible at the Brighton Centre.
Councillors voted to pass on the request for an audit of fast food and energy advertising to go before a future meeting of the council’s Adult Social Care and Public Health Sub-Committee.