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Manchester City Council has agreed to allow Manchester Health Authority to write to all parents of primary-aged children to ask if they would like their children to receive fluoridated milk.

The move has been made in a drive to improve the dental health of children and young people in the city where levels of tooth decay are among the worst in the country.

Latest figures for dental health among five-year-olds in the city show 61 per cent of them had some level of tooth decay. The national target is for 70 per cent to be free of tooth decay by 2003.

Parents whose children already receive school milk will be able to choose between untreated milk and milk which has fluoride added to it.

Cllr Bernard Stone, Manchester City Council's education boss, said: "Given the high levels of tooth decay amongst Manchester schoolchildren, it is vital we look at any measures which will reduce this."