Worries over an obesity epidemic in Reading have surfaced after a recent spate of food related press releases and photo opportunities.

Concerns over councillors' health first surfaced when inexperienced breast feeder Chris "Mr. Kipling" Maskell turned up at the drop of a cake at the Reading Breastfeeding Network and Steve Waite tucked into a five course curry at the Garden of Gulab 'on council business'.

Now Jon Hartley has added to the anxiety that local politicians' girths are spiralling out of control after announcing the "Special Chef's Table" initiative in Reading's schools. Cllr. Hartley told us: "The Putting Fun Back into Food campaign is all about engaging pupils' interest in eating and I think I'm the ideal person to show them the way as I'm always being told that I have a healthy appetite. But it's not all Turkey Twizzlers, our chef said he was introducing snails in an effort to get fast food off the menu and we're going to be telling the kids how to make ice cream at sundae school."