TO COMBAT Melksham’s increasing obesity crisis the town’s 12 schools have clubbed together to start a healthy living campaign.

A public health study in September found that nearly 30 per cent of children in the area are obese or overweight.

Following on from the report a healthy schools project was launched to attempt to bring Melksham’s schools up to a silver level standard on the Wiltshire Healthy Schools Programme (WHSP).

The project, initiated by Nick Bolton, manager at WHSP, and Melksham councillor Jon Hubbard, is designed to promote and teach the importance of a healthy diet and lifestyle among the town's youngsters.

Cllr Hubbard said: “All the schools are really on board with this which is great. Nine of the 12 schools have not achieved that bronze level but this can really help them along to reach that goal.

“It is an exciting venture and we are looking forward to supporting and collaborating with the schools to address this alarming statistic.

“The campaign is to improve the health of pupils but that in turn has a lot of knock-on effects for their mental health and on academic performance.

“There is a clear link between academic performance and health. They would not only be physically and mentally better off but could have the qualifications at the end of it.”

The scheme will actively promote learning and healthy lifestyle choices for children and support the schools capacity to deliver effective and sustainable interventions for children.

The project was awarded a £4,488 grant by the Melksham Area Board last April to help get it kick started.

It is currently only Forest & Sandridge Primary School that has a silver grading, with the highest award being gold.

"The schools are all signed up and are starting to work with the programme but there is still a lot of work to do," added Cllr Hubbard.

"Obesity in Melksham is a problem and we find that when pupils enter into primary school they are overweight but that the problem continues as they move up to secondary school as well.

"This is obviously something that we would like to see going in the other direction so we decided to start a campaign to tackle it in the schools."