Cambridgeshire County Council bans Junk Food Advertising

It was the hottest day of the year. Cambridgeshire fire and rescue service struggled to keep on top of crop fires. Train tracks buckled in the heat. We sweltered, drew our curtains, hid indoors out of the sun. Climate breakdown was undeniably here. And in the cool of Shire Hall, councillors to move towards phasing out adverts for environmentally damaging products and for junk foods on council property.

Watching the debate on my laptop screen, this felt like a small measure of hope on a grim day. More than year ago, I'd written to my councillors about the huge McDonalds ads that adorn bus stops I'd noticed near my home – bus stops that are, of course, disproportionately used by school children. It seemed to me bizarre that twenty years after the ban on tobacco advertising, we were permitting adverts for high-fat, high-salt and high-sugar foods on council property. We knew that Norwich, Bristol, Transport for London and others have policies that restrict junk food ads and adverts for products like flights that harm the living world. Could we do something similar in Cambridgeshire?

Here in the UK, we have one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in Europe: two in five children are now above a healthy weight when they leave primary school. The companies that push junk food know that diets high in processed food lead to heart disease, cancer and diabetes. The companies that push environmentally damaging products know that carbon emissions are leading to the destruction of the food and climate systems that sustain life. They're unbothered that their products shave years off people's lives. They advertise anyway.

Of course, they don't go unchallenged: teachers, parents, GPs and the council work hard to support children and young people to make healthier choices. In Cambridge where I live, Cambridge Sustainable Food Partnership does incredible work bringing businesses, the public sector and community organisations together to work towards a healthy and sustainable food system. But these public health efforts are undermined by the millions of pounds that go into promoting unhealthy foods. Companies like McDonalds, BP and KFC leverage the latest advances in behavioural psychology and neuroscience to influence our choices. When they buy bits of public space for advertising, they are also buying space in our heads.

How would our inner landscapes be different if advertising didn't exist? How would our thinking be different if attention-bombs shouting CHEAP FLIGHTS or BURGERS didn't exist? Imagine a Cambridge where bus stops and advertising hoardings were a place for art – how might we choose or act differently?

For now, that's a far-off dream. But the joint administration's thoughtful decision last week takes us in the direction of an ethical advertising policy that supports planetary and personal health. We're not there yet. The Strategy and Resources committee meets in October and will decide whether to phase out all forms of junk food advertising on county council assets. If supportive, they will publish an advertising strategy that considers junk food and environmentally damaging products. Much depends on the strength of that policy, and on co-operation from district councils, who also manage advertising space. But this motion, proposed by Cllr Cox Condron and Cllr Bulat, is a big step towards taking action towards a healthier and more sustainable Cambridgeshire.