MEDWAY is finally on the map - but for all the wrong reasons.

The Towns have grabbed 14th spot in a "fat map" showing obesity hotspots in the UK.

Nearly one in 10 patients registered with GPs in some places in the South East are significantly overweight. Hotspots include Medway (9.4 per cent), Barking and Dagenham (9.3 per cent) in East London, and Bexley (9.1 per cent).

The statistics emerged following research by medical data analysts Dr Foster Intelligence which shows that former industrial towns head the table of the fattest areas, while people from the affluent South are generally the slimmest.

The highest levels of obesity are in the steel belt of Wales – which has seven of the 10 worst-hit areas – and the former coal-mining areas of Yorkshire and the North East.

The fattest place in England is Barnsley, South Yorkshire, where 10.8 per cent are obese.

The Shetland Isles has the highest proportion of obese patients in Britain – 15.5 per cent.

Full story in the print edition of Friday's Medway Messenger