If it were up to Councilor Alexander Scholtes (Public Health), fast food restaurants would be banned from certain neighborhoods and districts. He says that in AT5’s Park Politics. According to the councilor, there are neighborhoods in the city where there are not enough healthy options. Scholtes would like to improve this with a new law and is also researching the legal options for this.
Scholtes does not want to ban unhealthy choices and calls people’s freedom of choice ‘a great asset’. However, he does see a problem in some neighborhoods. “It is not real freedom of choice if 80 percent of the food supply in your neighborhood is unhealthy.”
Health is not a consideration yet
That is why the councilor would like a ban on fast-food restaurants in neighborhoods where this is the case, with an arrangement similar to the one for tourist shops on a large number of streets in the center. However, this is not yet possible with the current regulations. “We can control odor nuisance, noise and crowds in spatial planning. Health is not officially a consideration, but I would like it to be a consideration.”
According to Scholtes, the problem is not only with The Hague, because the regulations are not yet that far. “It is also the case that health is not yet receiving enough attention in municipalities. Amsterdam has also made choices in the past that were more economically focused than on health. Health does not receive nearly enough attention.”
State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen (Public Health) has announced that municipalities will be given more instruments to promote healthy eating, but these are not yet available. “I will be working very hard with The Hague to achieve this. In the meantime, we as a municipality are looking at what we can do ourselves with a new environmental law.”
New law
In this new environmental law, the councilor would like to be able to ban snack bars near schools or in streets where mainly unhealthy food is available. “We are already investigating what is possible with other municipalities and I hope to be able to get started on this in the short term. We have to show courage.”
If Scholtes had his way, half of the food supply in neighborhoods should consist of healthy options and the other half of unhealthy options. “Freedom of choice also remains important.”
Watch the entire broadcast of AT5’s Park Politics below, in which Councilor Scholtes also discusses the opportunities and threats of artificial intelligence and answers the question: how far can you go as a government to enforce a healthy lifestyle?
2023-12-02 15:30:00
#Councilor #Scholtes #farreaching #steps #fight #fast #food
