内容摘要：The £136m government funding is part of the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) for the North East.

The £136m government funding is part of the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) for the North East.

What about sugar or junk-food taxes? What about wider bans on where calorie-dense foods can be sold or advertised?Prof Yeo says if we want change then “we're going to have to compromise somewhere, we're going to have to lose some liberties” but “I don't think we've come to a decision within society, I don't think we've debated it”.

In England, there have been official obesity strategies –and with very little to show for it.They included five-a-day campaigns to promote eating fruit and veg, food labelling to highlight calorie content, restrictions on advertising unhealthy food to children and voluntary agreements with manufacturers to reformulate foods.

But although there are tentative signs that child obesity in England, none of these measures have sufficiently altered the national diet to turn the tide on obesity overall.

There is one school of thought that weight-loss drugs may even be the event that triggers the change in our meals.

“Food companies profit, that’s what they want - the only ray of hope I have is if weight-loss drugs help a lot of people resist buying fast foods, can that start the partial reversal of the food environment?” asks Prof Naveed Sattar from the University of Glasgow.The new sculpture has been carved by Saul Sheldon at Hereford Cathedral's Stonemason's Yard, a few metres away from where the real Dan lived.

"He's climbing out of the reeds, out of the river," said Mr Sheldon."If he was just sat there, gazing up at the clouds it would have been a bit easier I suppose but it's nice to do something a bit different.

"The old wooden one, he's been on his travels down the Wye."Hopefully this one will be much harder to tip over, that's for sure."