Ah, French small-town life. A leisurely pace of life, good food and well- behaved children enjoying a brisk game of tennis. But France is in the grip of a child obesity epidemic, so serious that authorities had to devise a scheme to get local communities to police their own excess weight.

Epode — Ensemble, Prévenons l’Obésité des Enfants — has been a success, lowering the obesity rate by as much as 25 per cent in some towns and villages. In its six-year life it has curbed maternal weight gain and brought down the body mass index (BMI) of young children and now extends to 1.8 million inhabitants in 167 French cities.

Scotland, which has the worst obesity rate in the developed world outside the US, is the latest convert to Epode and yesterday Shona Robison, the Health Minister, announced that eight towns and and cities would take part in a £1.4 million pilot scheme.

Speaking at an obesity seminar in Edinburgh, Ms Robison said: “The French experience can teach us valuable lessons in cutting obesity. Our Healthy Weight Communities [scheme] will bring whole towns together.” She said that scheme would “embrace everything from breastfeeding support groups to walking clubs and healthy local gala days”.

“Crucially, they will involve councils, the NHS, the voluntary and private sector from schools and shops to community centres and parks.”

The eight communities taking part are: Armadale and Blackridge in West Lothian; Catrine in East Ayrshire; Barrhead in East Renfrewshire; Dumfries; Dundee; Priesthill and Househillwood in Glasgow; Stevenston in North Ayrshire; and Viewpark in North Lanarkshire.

Children in the chosen towns will have their BMI measured and will be compared with children in control towns, where no such scheme is in place. The project is, by its nature, a long-term one.

Ms Robison said that communities would be able to tailor the scheme to suit their own area, with leadership to come from the local authority (in France Epode is the responsibility of the local mayor).

She envisaged schools, businesses, the NHS, voluntary organisations and councils working together to reduce obesity. “If it can work in France, I have no reason to believe it can’t work in Scotland.”

She acknowledged that the resources were modest — each community will receive £200,000 — but said that it was a catalyst for change. “That money is only there to encour- age initiatives in the community . . . This is not just down to resources, it’s about doing things differently. France didn’t throw a lot of money at Epode. What it did was get everyone enthusiastic and that encourages its own dynamic. If you get people talking about it, if it gains currency, if people are inspired, it takes on a life of its own.”

Isolated action, she said, was futile, and this new scheme was “a serious attempt to change the way we go about our daily lives.”.

“Sometimes when you look at it [obesity], it is too big a challenge to tackle. Sometimes there has been that attitude in government, but we have decided that’s not an option.”

Epode does not stigmatise any culture or food habits. It is partly sponsored by the private sector, which co-ordinators say is one of its strengths.

While elsewhere in France obesity rates continued to rise — 25 per cent of French children could be overweight by 2020, and incidence of Type 1 diabetes among under fives in Europe is expected to double by 2020 — in towns with Epode the percentage of excess weight and obesity in the population went down by nearly 2 per cent from 2004-05.

Organisers say that Epode works because it is presented as a game and appeals to patriotic parents, with its emphasis on traditional French values. Also, it is not expensive. It costs €2 a day per child, which is borne by local government and industry sponsorship.

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