A bid to invite Coca-Cola's Christmas truck to Carlisle has left councillors fizzing about whether it should return - but it ultimately failed after an hour-long heated debate.

Conservative councillor Gareth Ellis tabled a motion asking for Carlisle City Council to invite the global drinks company to return to Carlisle next winter with its famous festive lorry.

Mr Ellis based his open invitation attempt on Carlisle's history in food and drinks production, which includes the manufacturing of biscuits at McVitie's and cans at the former Metal Box factory in Botcherby.

He put forward the motion after the Labour leader of Cumbria County Council Stewart Young and its director of public health, Colin Cox, wrote to Coca-Cola late last year telling them they did not want the truck to be brought back to Cumbria, as it bids to tackle childhood obesity.

Several councillors tonight argued that better public education about healthy choices was needed and that a short visit by Coca-Cola would not change attitudes.

Council leader Colin Glover made an impassioned plea for members to throw out the motion.

He stated government concerns, facts and figures of local childhood obesity and tooth decay problems, and highlighted how smoking had been tackled through changes in recent years to advertising and the sale of cigarettes.

Councillors were told that one in four children in Carlisle are overweight or obese by the time they finish primary school and that the city has one of the highest levels of tooth decay in the country.

Raising applause from the public gallery, Mr Glover concluded: "What we are saying is that we care about our children's health and we are prepared to do something about it."

Councillor Trevor Allison (Lib Dem, Dalston), who voted against the motion, said: "I reached that decision when I had to take my daughter and my grandchild to the Cumberland Infirmary to have every tooth out. They were distraught and so was I. It was stuck with me."

Councillors voted down the motion 28-22.

The debate comes just 10 days before Carlisle City Council launches Sugar Smart campaign, seeking to help cut the amount of sugar local people consume.

The drinks firm's famous festive red truck toured 42 UK cities in the run up to Christmas.

It visited Carlisle city centre in 2013 and stopped at Asda in Kingstown in 2016. It has also visited Penrith in recent years.