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Town bids for big health drive cash
A major £3m health project to get every single person over the age of five onto the weighing scales in Corby is in the pipeline.
Corby Council is bidding to be only one of six towns in the country to land Healthy Community Challenge funding from the Department of Health to tackle its poor record on health.
If successful, the high-profile scheme could see initial weigh-ins and body mass index calculations offered to everyone over five in an attempt to help monitor weight loss.
Currently, 30 per cent of Corby's adult population is obese, the third highest level in England.
Sports regeneration manager for Corby Council, Rachael Lewis, said: "We want everyone to take part in this.
"The aim is to get everyone on the weighing scales. We would then set sensible targets for people to lose weight.
"We would like to set sensible targets for weight loss across the town."
The mobile health MOT checks would be done by the council's mobile health unit at schools, workplaces and community centres.
It would particularly target socially-deprived areas.
Depending on individual needs, residents will be signposted to appropriate "healthy town" activities.
These include weight management courses for obese people, free physical activity sessions, a grow-your-own allotment project encouraging people to produce their own fruit and vegetables and cycling and walking to work schemes.
These are all key components of the application.
The scheme would also develop a network of community cookery champions to teach people healthy eating and cookery tips. But some are sceptical about whether the ambitious plan will work. Abby Barr, 44, from the Lincoln estate, said: "I don't think it will work in reducing obesity.
"The other ideas are not too bad but not the weighing part."
The 2008 health profile for Corby found early deaths from cancer, heart disease and strokes were significantly higher than the England average.
Also, rates of physical activity in the town are among the lowest nationwide.
In conjunction with Northamptonshire Primary Care Trust (PCT), the council got through the first round of the bidding process last month, getting a place among 22 other towns and cities, including Leicester, for the final stage that will see six authorities getting 3m or 5m worth of funding over the space of three years.
The deadline for the final bid to the Government is September 30. The authority should know by spring next year if it has been successful.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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