They were made possible by an initiative known as the Three Area Project - TAP for short - which was launched in 2010.

The three-year project saw £2.5m invested by the council and the NHS in three communities to help encourage healthier lifestyles and reduce obesity rates.

Skip obesity rates. Obesity is a term used to describe being very overweight with a lot of body fat. The most widely used measure is body mass index (BMI), which looks at whether a person is a healthy weight for their height. Those with a BMI of over 25 are classed as overweight, over 30 obese and over 40 severely obese. Children are measured in the first and last years of primary school as part of a national programme. The latest results show over 20% of four and five-year-olds are overweight and over a third of 10 and 11-year-olds. End of obesity rates.

It was a potentially controversial move. The money was found by scrapping the local child weight management programme, a 12-week scheme that worked with children who were already obese.

The organisers’ goal was clear - they wanted to prevent obesity rather than treat it.

“People were becoming dependent on it,” says Liz Blenkinsop, the council’s health improvement service manager who has overseen the project. “Some spent three years on it with little results.

"By working with three neighbourhoods that had the worst problems we felt we could find out what could really work to help stop obesity in the first place.”

Alongside Eastmoor, Airedale and the two adjoining villages of Kinsley and Fitzwilliam were also chosen. They are both former coal-mining communities that are still living in the shadow of the pit closures that took place during the 1980s and 1990s.

Skip the shadow of the pit closures Wakefield was one of the core coal-mining communities in Yorkshire. It is estimated that only half the jobs lost from the collapse of mining have been replaced, and 14% of people in the district of Wakefield live in what are considered to be among the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country. Both Airedale and Fitzwilliam/Kinsley fall into this group. End of the shadow of the pit closures

Local schools were supported and community venues renovated. TAP money was used to fit a new kitchen at the Kinsley and Fitzwilliam Community Centre. It now serves healthy lunches, such as jacket potatoes, salads and quiches.

“We’ve tried all sorts,” says Tracy Carrington, who manages the centre. “Soups, pastas and even frittatas - they didn’t go down well, but it is about getting people to try new things.”

But it’s also clear that there are difficulties.

While the public health team at the council has invested in the cafe, adult education classes at the centre stopped because of cuts.

Fewer people now use the centre, and the opening hours of the cafe have been cut, reducing the initiative's impact.

To the north lies Airedale. Christine Dando works in the local library. It too has got a new cafe as well as an outdoor play area for children to run around in.