Lewisham Council have won £100,000 worth of funding per year for three years to support their work to tackle childhood obesity in the borough as one of five councils selected for the Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme (COTP).
The funding will be used to test the council's powers to restrict food high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) advertising and use unsold outdoor advertising space for health promoting advertisements.
The project also plans to implement a voluntary restriction across the borough through contracts with major advertising estate owners working in partnership with ISBA, JCDecaux, and Outsmart (representing outdoor media owners and brands).
This builds on the Transport for London (TfL) estate HFSS restrictions which cover 50% of advertising space in Lewisham, to cover all JCDecaux owned estate in year 1, taking total restrictions across 80% of out of home (OOH) advertising space.
The remaining unsold advertising space will be utilised to promote tailored local public health campaigns devised with the community to support local businesses offering healthier options.