HOPES that the North-East could play a role in beating the looming obesity crisis are still alive, despite a setback.

Plans to train volunteers to run community weight management courses around the region were shelved by Teesside University last summer.

But now the organisers hope that a slimmed-down weight management course can take its place.

When Teesside University announced in 2004 that it would be offering the UK's first university-accredited course to train non-health professionals to work with obese people in 2004, it was hoped it could become a model for the whole country.

But a combination of factors, including cost, led to the course being scrapped after only one group of 13 students had been trained.

Now obesity expert Dr Becky Lang, who speaks for the Association for the Study of Obesity (ASO), has revealed there are plans to turn an existing weight management course, which originated in the North-East, into a weapon which could be used in the fight against obesity.

The course, which can be taught to non-health professionals and NHS staff in only 90 hours, was designed by Fiona Taylor, a specialist dietician and team leader of an obesity task force at Langbaurgh Primary Care Trust.

Mrs Taylor, who also lectures at Leeds Metropolitan University, would be happy to see her weight management course take off across the UK.

"This kind of course provides people with the skills to be able to run courses themselves," said Mrs Taylor, who estimates that about 100 people have already completed the course, run as part of the Open College Network.

"I know that people who completed the course are now training others all over the North-East," she said. "I would be very happy if this could be shared with others."

Dr Lang, from Newcastle, said a weight management training course for health professionals had been offered by the ASO at Liverpool and Cambridge for seven years.

But what was desperately needed was a practical course which could be completed by most people and then used to help others to lose weight.

It is hoped that by training lots of community weight management tutors, it could ease the burden on the NHS and begin to turn the tide of Britain's epidemic of obesity.

News that the North-East could play a leading role in the fight against obesity came in the week that Teesside University joined forces with the ASO to host a major international conference on obesity.

Speakers from the US and Holland joined UK experts to debate the way forward.