That’s more than is spent on providing hip operations for the elderly.

It is said by obesity experts that sedentary lifestyles and excessive food consumption has given to a rise in lifestyle diseases which is putting the NHS under an intolerable strain.

What with fast food outlets at every corner and fish and chip shops in between it is very difficult for a person to keep to a controlled diet every day of 2000 calories.

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Exercise is essential if you are to keep slim and healthy but with lifestyles so fast people say they just do not have time to exercise regularly so this problem will continue until legislation is brought in to control eating habits.

It has now come to our attention that drugs prescribed to treat diabetes has almost doubled in one decade, the figures show spending on such treatment, combined with that for weight loss drugs and indigestion remedies, has now topped £1billion — a 65 per cent rise in ten years.

By comparison the NHS only spends £900 million on hip operations and these are only offered to those with severe pain.

Recently obesity campaigners said couch- potato lifestyles were crippling the health service and that more people are having gastric bands fitted by surgery for obesity and many more people are asking their GPs for weight reducing drugs.

It is now time to instruct councils to run more public health campaigns to monitor people’s weight and blood pressure,

A few councils are doing this but every council must improve the populations health or our beloved NHS will grind to a halt.

Councillor John Wilmott