CHILDREN in Bolton are being weighed for the second year running as health chiefs continue to battle the problem of obesity.

Experts hope more youngsters will agree to step on to the scales, following the refusal of many to take part in the experiment last year.

Only 73 per cent of children aged four and five were weighed and measured in 2006 and just 61 per cent of 10 and 11-year-olds agreed to take part in the study.

It was launched to establish the degree to which children in Bolton have problems with weight.

Shock statistics, subsequently released in December, showed nearly 30 per cent of Bolton children under the age of 11 were obese or overweight and one in four youngsters aged four and five desperately needed to lose weight.

This year it is hoped more youngsters will take part, so health chiefs can build up a better picture of the obesity problem in the borough.

Jan Hutchinson, director of public health for Bolton Primary Care Trust, said: "We hope parents co-operate in allowing their children to be weighed and measured. We want at least 80 per cent of children to participate.

"This will give us better information for the population as a whole and show us whether obesity is increasing or decreasing, so we know if the measures we have in place are effective."

Overweight youngsters run an increased risk of developing type-two diabetes - normally only found in the over 40s - by their teenage years, along with heart disease, arthritis, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.

Health bosses in Bolton already run a range of schemes, such as the healthy schools programme, promoting healthy eating and physical activity.

Plans to treat overweight and obese children will be launched later this year.