Helping Bury families make healthier food choices

Children and families across Bury will benefit from healthier neighbourhoods after Bury Council adopted new planning guidance to help improve local food environments and support healthier lifestyles.

The new guidance will help shape decisions on future hot food takeaway developments, supporting efforts to reduce health inequalities and give residents, particularly young people, better opportunities to eat well and live well.

Bury Council has formally adopted its Hot Food Takeaway Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), strengthening the borough's commitment to creating healthier communities and reducing health inequalities.

Developed through close collaboration between Public Health and Planning, the SPD uses local data and national evidence to guide decisions on new hot food takeaway developments. Research shows that higher concentrations of takeaways are often linked to increased childhood obesity and are more common in areas facing greater deprivation.

A key feature of the guidance is Bury's Hot Food Takeaway Matrix, which helps inform planning decisions by considering factors such as proximity to secondary schools, local childhood obesity rates and existing concentrations of takeaway outlets.

Jon Hobday, Director of Public Health, said:

"This is a positive step towards creating healthier environments for our residents. By considering health alongside planning decisions, we can help give children and families the best opportunity to live healthy lives while supporting sustainable local development."

Councillor Tamoor Tariq, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, said:

"I am pleased to see this important policy adopted. Creating healthier neighbourhoods requires action across many areas of council work, and planning has a key role to play. This guidance will help ensure that future development supports the health and wellbeing of our communities, particularly our children and young people."

Bury Public Health would like to thank colleagues across Planning, and the Health and Wellbeing Board for their support in developing the SPD. The guidance forms part of a wider programme of work to help residents eat well, live well and enjoy healthier choices across the borough.