THE VALE of Glamorgan has the lowest child obesity rates in Wales.

Figures from Public Health Wales showed that approximately 20.9 per cent of children aged four and five are overweight in the Cardiff and Vale health board area - compared to the Welsh average of 26.2 per cent.

It also means that childhood obesity rates in the region have decreased for the third year running.

The statistics come from the Child Measurement Programme (CMP) for Wales 2014/15, which saw almost 30,000 children across Wales weighed and measured for the survey, which is now in its fourth year.

Obesity in children can cause social and psychological problems; it is also more likely to continue into adult life, increasing the risk of type two diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Cardiff and Vale's public health team has rolled out initiatives such as walking buses to promote active travel to school, nutrition courses for children and parents and the healthy schools scheme, which aims to help schools include health and wellbeing in their daily activity.

The health board also delivers the school holiday enrichment programme (SHEP) which was a multi-agency pilot in 2015 and saw children attend their schools outside term-time, where they were fed healthy meals, learned about food and played sports.

The number of underweight children in Cardiff and the Vale remains at 1.7 per cent which is the same as last year.

Director of public health Sharon Hopkins said: "These figures are extremely encouraging and reflect the efforts of the public health team and its partners in the public and third sectors, who are working together to tackle childhood obesity.

"However there is no room for complacency. As well as the number of underweight children, we must continue our work to address inequality across Cardiff and the Vale.

"We know that deprived areas have higher rates of obesity and we aim to give every child the opportunity for a happy and healthy childhood and a happy and healthy future."