Following my post last week about the coming to light of more evidence of alarming health inequality in Reading, children's health in our area was in the news again today with the publication of damning statistics relating to childhood obesity.
This time the data (published by the NHS Information Centre) showed that 35% of 10 and 11 year olds in Reading are overweight or obese.
This is a tragedy for the children and families affected - obese children are more likely than other children to suffer poor health to experience bullying.
But these problems go deeper and wider than just individual families. They form part of a worrying picture about public health in Reading.
These stats underline the fact that public health in Reading is nowhere near as good as other parts of the South East.
And If we believe a healthy population is also happy population we should be worried about this.
It follows the publication in July of the local 'health profile' of our Borough which painted a very mixed picture with health in wealthier parts of the Borough markedly better than other areas of our Town.
Today's news comes the day after a national study on the topic published by researchers at University College London found more evidence linking childhood obesity to deprivation.
It's not surprising, therefore, that childhood obesity is a big problem in Reading (please excuse the pun) which is a very divided place wealth and health-wise.
Reading - where there are pockets of real deprivation and some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the country.
Childhood obesity was one of the health indicators we looked at as part of our recent joint scrutiny review into children's health.
Our review focussed on the linkages between poverty and children's health.
And the prevalence of childhood obesity in Reading is without question one of the clearest indicators of Labour's failure to allieviate child poverty locally.
At the second scrutiny review meeting we were presented with pages of details about PCT and RBC strategies and programmes designed to improve child health.
As councillors, we found it hard to measure the impact: was the money spent actually making a difference? Were the worst-off families getting access to support they needed? How does the public know the answers to these questions if we as locally elected-representatives can't always get the information we need?
As I mentioned last week, the poverty gap in England - and in Reading - is widening not closing.
This is an urgent issue and it needs a much greater focus at a neighbourhood level from the Labour-run administration and the primary care trust if we are going to reverse the trend.
A lot of good work has gone on in Reading to improve the quality of food available in schools.
However, the latest data on childhood obesity in Reading suggests that a lot more effort is needed if we are going to reverse this worrying trend.
We need to look at issues like how easy is it for families to get access to affordable healthy food, exercise and support.
I am concerned that in areas like South Reading some of these things are hard to come by for families on low incomes.
I feel passionately that now this issue is finally on the agenda we must not lose momentum on the need to tackle child poverty and poor child health.
With this in mind I wrote to senior officers and councillors yesterday to draw their attention to the childhood obesity figures and to ask them what specific activities are going on to address this problem.
My aim is to get the issue right to the top of the agenda for the Local Strategic Partnership next year, and to do some further work in scrutiny to identify what we need to do to improve child health in the poorest parts of the Borough.
It's an ambitious aim, but we have to set our sights higher if we are going to improve the health of children in Reading.
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