Scandal of the 5000 new fast food restaurants that have opened outside schools in just seven years
More than 5,000 new fast-food restaurants have opened outside schools in Britain in the last seven years. Experts warned that the growing ‘plague’ of chip shops and burger joints are driving the nation’s obesity epidemic. More than one in four takeaway shops in the country are located within a five-minute walk of a primary or secondary school. There are now 15,327 fast-food restaurants within five minutes of schools across the UK – up from just 9,700 in 2009.Some 5,627 new takeaways have appeared close to schools in just seven years, 528 of them in the last 12 months alone.
The data, compiled for the Daily Mail by mapping firm Mapmechanics, is based on the location of businesses logged by the Ordnance Survey.It shows that of 55,499 fast-food businesses in Britain, 28 per cent are within five minutes of a primary or secondary school. Health experts warn that the easy accessibility of junk food makes it far too easy for children to go into a kebab shop or pizza restaurant at lunch time or on the way home from school.
About 17 per cent of boys and 15 per cent of girls aged under 16 in England are obese
