An older people's group has urged politicians to help increase funding for public health in the borough.

Enfield Over 50s Forum president Monty Meth has condemned the freeze a freeze in funding for the borough, which will remain at £14.25million.

The allocation works out at £43 per head of the population compared to £68 for neighbouring Haringey, £133 per hear for Kensington and Chelsea, and £114 for Hammersmith and Fulham.

Mr Meth said: “The forum cannot understand this anomaly in funding when we all need the services provided by public health to be available all the time, while NHS primary care is only required some of the time.”

Mr Meth also claimed that the grant is 13.6 per cent below the target figure set by the Department of Health, which distributes the funding.

He added: “The critical importance of securing more funding for public health can be judged by the 20 per cent of deaths of Enfield residents still being related to smoking and that the cost of obesity and overweight people across all ages is estimated to cost the borough £84 million a year in health care costs."

The borough has some of the highest rates of obesity in the country and Lorna Reith of health watchdog Healthwatch Enfield, said: “Public health is an incredibly important service in Enfield, given the challenges around health inequalities and serious issues such as childhood obesity and levels of smoking. It is absolutely vital that public health is adequately funded.”

A Department of Health spokesman said: "We want everybody to have the opportunity to live a long and healthy life. In the last three years, local authorities have been given £8.2 billion to address public health issues in their communities like smoking, problem drinking and obesity.

“Since responsibility and funding for public health moved to local authorities in 2013, Enfield’s allocation has increased by 21 per cent. This is the highest growth level among all local authorities, and compares to an England average increase of 10.8 per cent.”