THREE years ago, I wrote in this column about my fury that sweets, chocolate and fizzy drinks were so widely available in vending machines in leisure centres, supposedly places of healthy exercise.

I found it depressingly ironic that the King Alfred in Hove, operated by Freedom Leisure on behalf of Brighton and Hove City Council, had six vending machines all offering adult-sized chocolate bars and bottles of fizzy drinks, while at the same time the council “promotes on its website the Department of Health’s Change4Life and Active4Life campaigns - motto: “Eat Well, Move More, Live Longer”.

Well, since then, children’s health has taken a significant turn for the worse; in 2013/4, a third of 10 to 11-year-olds and more than a fifth of four to five-year-olds were overweight or obese, figures from National Child Measurement Programme showed. The World Health Authority regards childhood obesity as one of the “most serious global challenges for the 21st century”.

But last week there was what seems to be a breakthrough. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued a series of guidelines called quality statements on preventing obesity in children. They “set out the effective actions that should be taken to prevent and manage obesity in children and young people,” says Professor Gill Leng, Deputy Chief Executive of NICE, adding that “tackling obesity in children and young people benefits their future health… up to 79% of children who are obese in their teens are likely to be obese adults, which can lead to health problems in adulthood such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.”

One of the guidelines concentrates specifically on the contents of vending machines in local authority and NHS venues, saying local authorities and NHS organisations should provide “healthy food and drink options in any vending machines in their venues that are used by children and young people”. The organisations “can set an example by providing healthy food and drink choices at their venues” and “can influence venues in the community (such as leisure centres) and services provided by commercial organisations to have a positive impact on the diet of children and young people using them”, the guidelines say.

So if NICE recognises that such venues can indeed “influence” what children eat, it is clear that these venues are guilty of contributing to obesity in children. By providing nothing but junk food, they are feeding the craving for more junk food for children in a vulnerable situation, either unwell in hospital or hungry after a burst of exercise. And therefore guidelines are simply not enough. These recommendations should be enshrined in law so that places run by local and national authorities, paid for by you and me on behalf of you and me, are forced to provide healthy food only for their users. It is simply not compatible, morally, ethically or otherwise, for public authorities to actively promote healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle on the one hand, yet actively encourage children and young people to pile on the pounds with the other.

Commercial businesses can quite easily say that their supply of junk food is driven by demand, but for a publicly provided place of health to claim the same is utterly wrong. A demand driven by children that is clearly bad for them should be ignored in these circumstances because children only see what they want while we, as adults, should act in their best interests.

Who makes these decisions about what food is available in hospitals and leisure centres? The managers? Do they come under pressure from mandarins deep within the government because the government itself is under pressure from the fat cat confectionary manufacturers to keep sugar on the nation’s menu? It all smacks of corruption and what Of course, one point that has been overlooked is that children, and adults for that matter, don’t actually need to eat snacks at all. Three healthy meals a day is enough for anyone but we have become so swayed by food advertising that snacking is now the norm.

Of course, the greatest responsibility for what children eat lies with their parents, and most do their best to give them a healthy start in life.

But it beggars belief that their attempts are hampered by the very public bodies that should be helping them. Why does Brighton and Hove City Council work so hard to save the planet but not its own people? Why does it think it’s OK to make an unhealthy profit out of children? What will it take for them and hospitals to actually take children’s health seriously?