Local Practice Example: The Gateshead Hot Food Takeaway Supplementary Planning Document

Gateshead Council have set an ambition to make Gateshead a place where everyone thrives. The aim is to help communities not just survive, but flourish, prosper and succeed.

To support Gateshead’s strategic approach, Gateshead Council published a Supplementary Planning Document in 2015 to set out priorities and objectives in relation to planning control of hot food takeaways. This document, part of an integrated public health strategy, has been used successfully to control the proliferation of hot food takeaways in areas of Gateshead with high levels of child obesity.

The Supplementary Planning Document states that planning permission for new hot food takeaway premises will not be given where:

• it is within a 400m radius of entry points to secondary schools, youth centres and parks (locations where children and young people congregate)
• wards in which more than 10% of year 6 pupils are classified as living with obesity (using National Child Measurement Programme data)
• the number of hot food takeaways within the ward is equal to or exceeds the national average, per 1000 population
• clustering of hot food takeaways will have a negative impact on the vitality of the local area, centre or shopping parade

This is in addition to a number of other criteria, including residential amenity. All future hot food takeaway applications now need to be accompanied by a health impact assessment.

Additional reading: Refer to Public Health England case study on Gateshead Council using planning to limit the proliferation of takeaways https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/planning-document-to-limit-the-proliferation-of-takeaways