PROPOSALS designed to cut Southampton’s high obesity rates will today be presented to council leaders.

They include extending school breaks and lunchtimes to 45 minutes, encouraging the teaching of basic cookery skills and improving city cycle routes.

City health bosses drew up the recommendations after carrying out an investigation into the city’s obesity problem, where just over one in four adults and nearly one in ten five-year-olds is classed as dangerously fat.

They found that obesity costs the city £147m every year, with the figure set to rise to £217m in five years’ time.

The annual cost includes everything from the city’s NHS spending on battling the bulge – currently £21m – to the other financial burdens on society.

These include an increased likelihood of obese people relying on state welfare benefits and retiring earlier due to ill health.

Members of the city council’s ruling Conservative Cabinet will have two months to respond to the recommendations that were drawn up by cross-party members of the council’s health scrutiny panel.