Banning fast food outlets in London

The major of London, Sadiq Khan, is the latest gullible chump to fall for an idiotic idea from 'public health' busybodies.

Fast-food takeaways will be banned from opening within 400 metres of schools in a bid to tackle the capital’s child obesity epidemic.

... [Khan] said: “Takeaway restaurants are a vibrant part of London life, but it’s important that they are not encouraging our children to make poor food choices.

“I am using all of my powers through my new London Plan to prevent new takeaways from being built just down the road from schools as part of a package of measures to tackle the ticking time bomb of childhood obesity and help us all lead healthier lives.”

Great news for the incumbent chicken shop industry, not such good news for consumers. When did protecting existing fast food outlets from competition become part of the mayor's job?

But the ban only applies to streets within 400 metres of a school, right? How bad can it be?

Let's have a look at just some of the schools in London, shall we?

That map doesn't show the scale so let's zoom in on one area at random and compare it with a Google map of the same area which shows what 500 metres is in the bottom right.

Imagine a 400 metres exclusion zone around each of those schools and you get an idea of how far-reaching this ban is.

And thanks to some solid work by Dan Cookson, you don't need to use your imagination. Here's how it will look...

 
In the future, if you want to open a Chinese takeaway or a sandwich shop in a part of London where people actually live - ie. not in a river or a park - you might as well forget it. In the future, a licence to sell tasty food will be like gold dust. The only way to get one will be to beg, borrow or steal from one of today's lucky owners.

So much for London being a dynamic, business-friendly metropolis.