From April next year councils will take control of public health and tomorrow the Local Government Association (LGA) will discuss how they could tackle childhood obesity.

Councillor David Simmonds, chairman of the LGA's Children and Young People Board, explained to Today presenter Evan Davis that LGAs want to make sure "that the local planning process tries to reduce the number of cheap poor quality food outlets… particularly around schools".

Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at the University of Kent, described the move as a "fairly pointless exercise".

By "insulating children from real experience" of the outside world and "taking away their freedom", children are not getting the exercise that they need, he argued.

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