SIX schools in East Lancashire are to take part in a pilot project to tackle child obesity and cut the risk of the region's youngsters developing serious illness.

Recent figures show one in seven 15-year-olds and one in 12 six-year-olds are obese.

And the International Obesity Task Force has warned that over 40 per cent of the UK population could be obese "within a generation."

The Healthier Cookery Clubs scheme, announced yesterday by Public Health Minister Melanie Johnson, will work with 42 schools in the North West region.

Six of these are in Nelson - Edge End High School, Whitefield Infants, Lomeshaye Juniors, Marsden Primary, St Paul's Primary and St John's Southworth Primary.

They are expecting to share £12,000 worth of funding to start various initiatives.

They include a fresh fruit juice bar at break times, planned for Edge End High School. St Paul's will concentrate on raising awareness among parents.

Mashuq Hussain, school youth worker for Edge End High, said his school and its cluster primaries had not been chosen because they had widespread problems with obesity but because school leaders wanted to take part and teach pupils and parents about healthy eating.

He added: "The scheme will run over the next two terms. By the end we hope to create some awareness within young people and their parents about the issues of healthy living and eating."

The project aims to teach children how to cook healthy and tasty meals while increasing their awareness and understanding of the importance of a balanced diet, food hygiene and safety.

It is one of eight projects being piloted across England under the £2.2million Food in Schools programme, which is jointly run by the Department of Health and the Department for Education and Skills.

The programme also has strong links with other initiatives to reduce obesity, improve long-term health and establish healthy eating habits such as 5-a-Day and the National School Fruit Scheme.

Lessons learned from the programme will be drawn together to develop a nationwide school approach to promote healthy eating in children to help prevent obesity.

Melanie Johnson said: "Children who are overweight or obese face greater risks of developing serious illness later in life, such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Obesity itself is responsible for 31,000 premature deaths each year. It's vital we tackle this problem before it's too late.

"We said we'd help children to eat more healthily and through programmes like the £44million National School Fruit Scheme nearly one million four- to six-year-olds are now receiving a free piece of fruit each school day.

"This new drive builds further on these commitments and is fantastic news for schools across England including East Lancashire."

The pilot programmes will start in early 2004 with individual launches in mid January.