NORTH Ayrshire is home to the fattest children in Scotland - with one in three labelled as obese.

New figures from Scottish Government show that one third of primary school-aged children in North Ayrshire are overweight - the highest number in Scotland.

Almost one in four primary one pupils across the country is overweight. And more than one in 10 is clinically obese. In North Ayrshire one child in three is obese.

Today North Ayrshire Council vowed to tackle the obesity problem and say they will be taking action.

A scheme to improve the health and fitness of young children is already in place within all 53 of North Ayrshire’s primary schools.

The initiative sees older pupils put Primary 1 children through their paces in PE lessons.

It is hoped the scheme will encourage healthy lifestyles and improve the childhood obesity rate.

Executive Director for Education and Youth Employment, John Butcher said: “While these statistics are extremely disappointing, we are putting things in place that will make our children some of the healthiest in Scotland.

“Our catering teams have won numerous prizes, including a Gold Catering Award from the SOIL Association which recognised our commitment in sourcing and using healthy local produce. Pamela Jamieson was also recently named School Chef of the Year.

“There is no doubt we are producing good healthy meals – and it’s extremely encouraging that more and more children are eating them. Since the free school meals initiative for P1s to P3s was introduced at the start of the year, we have seen 84 per cent of children take part in the scheme. This is more than the national average and proves families are as keen as we are to give their children the healthiest and best start in life.

“We are also encouraging our children to be more active with every school in North Ayrshire achieving at least two hours per week of physical activity.

“Our PE lead officer is working extensively across the authority to provide training for staff in a range of both mainstream and minority sports including things like Boccia, Badminton and the better movers and thinkers programme.

“These initiatives, coupled with our drive to improve learning about nutrition and its impact on health, mean that, while they are in school, the young people of North Ayrshire are experiencing very positive learning about health and well-being and the importance of looking after their bodies.” Labour MSP, Margaret McDougall says the SNP Government is simply not doing enough to tackle the problem.

She said: “This is a shocking statistic, across Scotland 1 in 4 Children are obese, but in North Ayrshire it’s 1 in 3, and it’s getting worse under the SNP lead council and SNP controlled Scottish Government.

“Obesity Scotland in Scotland could cost up to £4.6billion and could be costing the NHS as much as £600million a year, according to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre yet after almost two full terms in Parliament and almost three years in control of North Ayrshire council the SNP have completely failed to tackle it and pervious progress that was made is now slipping away.

“If a generation of youngsters are setting out on a path of poor diets it’s going to be very difficult to change those habits in adulthood. We need to act now, and we need a review in to why the North Ayrshire figures are higher than the national picture.

“The current approach simply isn’t good enough, it’s a ticking time bomb and the SNP need to get their act together and deal with it.” Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said: “This is a depressing reflection on another failure in SNP health policy. It likes to talk up its focus on childhood health, but the statistics are telling a completely different story.

“Obesity is fast becoming as significant a public health challenge as drinking and smoking.

“If a generation of youngsters are setting out on a path of poor diets and supine lifestyles, it’s going to be very difficult to change those habits in adulthood.

“If we had more health visitors out and about in Scotland’s homes, problems would be spotted earlier and these figures would begin to move in the right direction.”