Welsh council to look into banning junk food advertising

Elgan Hearn, Local democracy reporter

Blaenau Gwent council will look into ways of curbing the advertising of junk foods in the county borough.

The decision comes after a motion was brought to a special meeting of the county borough council on Wednesday, March 25, on restricting the advertising of ultra-processed and high fat, salt, and sugar foods on council-owned advertising assets.

Blaenau Gwent is known for having one of the highest obesity rates in the whole country.

The motion was presented by Green Party councillor Sonia Behr (Nantyglo) and had been seconded by Cllr Julie Holt (Opposition Independent – Abertillery & Six Bells) and supported by Cllrs Joanna Wilkins, Gareth Davies, Lee Parsons, and Helen Cunningham.

Cllr Behr said that when she drove around the county borough, she had expected to see more advertising for fast food but had “realised” that it is mostly on “the fast-food outlet.”

Cllr Behr said: “They catch your attention and you think I’ll drive in and have some chips or whatever.”

“The public boards I have seen so far, one of them had a very public good health service promotion which was for breastfeeding, and it was very prominent.

“So, it looks like we are already going along the right lines, but we need to have a policy in place in case we get even more drive-throughs (restaurants) coming our way with their own hoardings on their property.”

She wanted to find out what the legal position is to see if those can be “restricted in size and brightness.”

Cllr Lisa Winnett (Labour – Blaina), who chairs the Planning and Licensing committees, said: “I’m not against this motion in principle but the wording gives me great concern.”

She pointed out a snag in the motion.

Firstly, around planning legislation when applications for advertising hoardings are received by the council and that they have to be judged on their “merits.”

And secondly, the council licenses mobile van takeaways.

Council leader Cllr Steve Thomas (Labour – Tredegar) said: “While the obesity issue is something we need to focus on, we would be setting up officers to do work with nothing to back them up.

“I have a view, this is such a critical issue, we should take forward a piece of work and amend the motion and task officers to come up with a scoping report to look at this from all angles.”

He explained that a report would come back to council recommending the next steps to take and take into account the legislation around planning and licensing.

Cllr Behr welcomed this and recognised that the complexities of planning are a “nightmare” where this is concerned.

Cllr Winnett said that she could support any amendments that protected the council from breaking licensing and planning laws.

Cllr Helen Cunningham (non-aligned – Llanhilleth) said: “By taking this forward it shows we are serious about addressing the health inequalities that so badly affect our borough.”

Cllr Julie Holt added that advertising cigarettes had been stopped.

Councillors went ahead and unanimously agreed to the amended motion.