Wellingborough Council has announced a 12-week programme called Body 4 Life, to be run with Northamptonshire Teaching Primary Care Trust, to tackle the problem of overweight and obesity in children aged between eight and 13.

They will be invited by a school nurse or GP to attend the course, which will involve an hour of fun nutrition education from qualified healthcare and fitness professionals, public health specialists, dieticians and nurse advisors.

This will be followed by an hour of physical activity such as gymnastics, fitness classes and swimming.

A spokesman for Wellingborough Council said: "Tackling childhood obesity in the borough is vital to ensure the next generation of adults are fit and healthy.

"Encouraging children to increase the amount of exercise they take and reducing the amount of time they spend being inactive, along with having a balanced diet, will play a big part in improving their overall physical and mental health."

Clare Bland, a mother living in Ambleside Close, Wellingborough, said: "My children are not overweight but I get a few gripes when I ask them to do exercise. But mostly they are pretty good about it.

"We have a puppy, which they take for walks, and a trampoline in the garden which they love.

"Each child is different, but I think it is important to keep it fun.

"It is great that the council has set this scheme up for overweight children because there is not much for children to do. It is no surprise that some need a bit of encouragement to do more exercise."

The scheme follows a report published in January by health secretary Alan Johnson, which stated Britain was in the grip of a childhood obesity epidemic.

Almost a third of children are overweight or obese and work by the Government Office for Science's Foresight programme says without clear action, this will rise to almost two-thirds of children by 2050. The first course starts in November at the Waendal Leisure Centre, Wellingborough.