COUNCIL bosses have been urged to draw on the spirit of the 1850s to tackle the severe health problems in Blackburn with Darwen.

Dominic Harrison, director of public health, said the high levels of alcohol consumption and obesity in the borough pose a greater risk than the dire living conditions and unclean water of 160 years ago.

And in his first major report in the role, published today, he calls for councillors to show the same level of public leadership displayed by their Victorian counterparts.

Blackburn with Darwen is regularly highlighted as one of the least healthy boroughs in the country, with high rates of cancer, heart disease, obesity and diabetes, and Mr Harrison said tough new measures are needed to tackle the ‘causes of the causes’ of ill health.

He said: “When the council was first set up in 1851 the towns of Blackburn and Darwen were noted places of ‘endemic and ubiquitous ill health’, but within 50 years we were a model council in terms of sorting out these problems.

“Fast forward to 2013 and we’ve got clean water and a good sewage system, but we have a big problem with diseases caused by lifestyles and behaviours. I would say it’s even more crucial to act now than it was in the 1850s.”

He said many of the problems were caused by cheap alcohol, fast food, tobacco promotion and high sugar foods and unhealthy lifestyles being promoted to children through advertising.

This is compounded by increased poverty and unemployment caused by public policy decisions that shift resources from the north to the south of England, he added.

Mr Harrison said it would be impossible to ‘treat our way out’ of the problems with better health services, as this would fail to reach the underlying causes.