Just when you thought it was safe to let your children out at lunch time…
County Wicklow is again at the centre of the country’s obesity crisis as Council bosses seek to oppose the proposed No Fry Zone.
Wicklow councillors are due to vote within the coming weeks on a proposal that would prevent fast-food establishments from opening within 400m of schools, parks or playgrounds.
However it has emerged that Wicklow County Council (WCC) chief executive Bryan Doyle has objected to the specific distance of 400m and requested that the proposal be amended to require planning authorities to “give careful consideration to the location of fast food outlets in the vicinity of schools and parks, in particular in newly developing areas. All proposals will be considered on a case by case basis”.
WCC offered no comment on the matter when contacted by the Wicklow Voice.
Members of the public, known as No Fry Zone 4 Kids, who have been lobbying to ban unhealthy food outlets from operating places where children learn and play have expressed their disapproval of the chief executive’s stance.
“No Fry Zones 4 Kids are very disappointed to see that the acting chief executive of Wicklow County Council is opposed to the inclusion of ‘no fry zones’ around schools, parks and playgrounds, as proposed by county councillors and voted into the draft county development plan (CDP) some months ago,” Basil Miller, a founding member of the group told the Wicklow Voice.
“In the light of the fact that Wicklow Country Council’s planners have twice given planning approval for a McDonald’s restaurant only 30 metres from a 1,800-student education campus at Blacklion, Greystones, we can have no confidence in the council.”
“We can have no confidence that the council will protect Wicklow’s schools students from the dangers of fast foods in the future unless a very specific ban on such outlets is included in the CDP,” said Mr Miller.
The proposed ban was written into the council’s draft development plan in November 2015 and was open for a period of public consultation.
During this time, 202 submissions were entered in favour of the proposal while two called for further debate and another two – one of which was from fast-food giant KFC – were against.
In their submission KFC stated that their restaurant offered a wide range of food that could be enjoyed as part of a balanced diet.
The second submission against the proposal cited loss of jobs in the local area.
Among those in favour were Royal College of Physicians of Ireland’s Policy Group on Obesity, the HSE, DCU, TCD, UCG, the Irish Heart Foundation’s Nutrition Council, Safefood, and the Association for the Study of Obesity as well as members of the public.
