PLANS to improve the health of those in Blackbird Leys have been unveiled to help improve life expectancy.

Men on the estate can expect to die 10 years sooner, at the age of 75, than those in North Oxford, who are expected to live until the age of 85.

Lord Mayor of Oxford Rae Humberstone, who has lived on the Leys for 25 years, said there were a lot of issues that needed tackling.

He said: “We need to promote healthy eating, but it’s down to lower-income families being able to afford it. It’s no good promoting organic food if it costs twice as much. Mega-deals on crisps and fizzy drinks don’t help.

“It starts with the young. We need to encourage young people to live a healthy lifestyle, eat well and cut down on alcohol consumption.”

A health plan for Blackbird Leys and Northfield Brook has been drawn up and reveals that residents are three times more likely to die from cancer and circulatory illnesses than the UK average.

Women in Blackbird Leys and Northfield Brook were given a slightly longer life expectancy of 78 and 77 respectively. But this also lagged behind women in Wolvercote, who were likely to live to 88, and North Oxford, at 87.

Partners, including Public Health, Good Food Oxford, Oxfordshire Mind and Oxford City Council, have agreed to work with GPs to make sure more people make use of cancer screening programmes and non-smoking initiatives.

Statistics also revealed that about 30 per cent of adults in the Leys are obese, compared to 16 per cent in Oxford as a whole.

Maggie Dent, equality and access manager at Oxfordshire CCG, said: “The main health issues which affect the Leys are cardiovascular diseases, such as heart disease and stroke, diabetes and cancers. Mental health and well-being is also an issue and can be linked to people’s circumstances, such as having a low income.”

“From the health plan, the health and wellbeing partnership have agreed that an initial start will be a focus on food.

“This will look at people’s access to affordable, healthy food and also look at issues of lack of access to food supplies.”

Key actions identified in the report included running monthly walks at the Leys Health Centre and promoting healthy options in vending machines at the Leys Pools and Leisure Centre.

Cooking skills courses and a ‘community fridge’, where residents share healthy meals they have cooked with others, are also being floated.

Youngsters in schools operated by the Blackbird Academy Trust (BAT), which runs Windale, Orchard Meadow and Pegasus Primary Schools are to be shown an educational DVD called Sugar Swap. BAT schools have also now switched to healthy cooking.

The same data found that 25 per cent of year six children were obese, and more than 20 per cent were overweight at reception age.

Orchard Meadow headteacher Donna Roberts said: “We do all our own catering now. We used to use a company but now everything is made fresh in-house.

“We do encourage healthy eating in packed lunches but it’s hard to dictate to people what they can send in their child’s lunchbox.”

“But the main thing that we do is our PE provision. We are using a company called Boing who are all about ‘physical literacy’ rather than PE. It feels more like games than a traditional PE session. We have all children engage and get up and active.”

Windrush Tower resident Cherise West, 24, said she tried to feed her two-year-old daughter Amelia good food but could not always afford it.

She said: “I make efforts to be healthy. If she doesn’t eat what’s for dinner, I don’t give her anything. But junk food is cheap. Chocolate costs 30p but fruit is expensive.”

For Blackbird Leys resident Alan Wright, 80, a former senior aircraftsman at RAF Bridgnorth and head chef at Cowley Road Hospital, exercise is a priority.

He said: “It’s about exercise. I used to fry fish and chips in lard and eat things like jam fritters. But I never got obese because I walked miles up and down the kitchen.

“People can get quality food if they look. But not here – it’s over in the Cowley centre.”

But Aydan Kilic, who runs a fish and chip shop in Knights Road, said healthy food was expensive. He said: “Everyone is asking people to eat healthily but with the income levels here they can just buy kebabs. My family are in different food businesses and healthy food is always going to be expensive.”