DETAILED plans on how fluoride could be added to Southampton's tap water by the end of the year have been revealed for the first time.

The controversial proposals will see 160,000 residents - 67 per cent of the city's population - receiving fluoridated water.

Click here for part one of the report and here for part two

But this only covers seven of 11 "priority" areas identified by health chiefs, who want to add fluoride to the water to tackle the city's poor dental health.

Children in Southampton are among those with the poorest dental health in the country.

Bosses from the South Central Strategic Health Authority, which oversees Southampton City Primary Care Trust (PCT), meet today to decide whether to support a £178,000 public consultation on the proposals.

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If feedback is positive, moves to add fluoride will go ahead. The Department of Health would pay the initial £471,000 to start the scheme and the PCT would be responsible for keeping it going at a cost of £60,500 each year.

The priority areas for fluoride that have been identified are: Freemantle and Polygon, Central Southampton, Weston, Portswood and St Denys, Outer Shirley, Shirley Estate and Lordshill.

Four other priority neighbourhoods - Townhill Park, Harefield, Thornhill and the Flowers Estate in Bassett - will not get fluoridated water because they are not supplied by the distribution centres at Otterbourne and Rownhams.

City schools with worst dental records - click here

The plans have been opposed by the Hampshire Against Fluoridation campaign group.

Chairman John Spottiswoode said: "The benefits of water fluoridation are debatable and there is evidence of some nasty side effects. It is a violation of our human rights to push a very nasty chemical into our bodies without choice via the water supply, even if it is believed to be medicinal."

He said side effects can include skeletal fluorosis causing brittle bones, bone cancer, thyroid problems, brain damage and hypersensitive reactions. But local health chiefs are backing fluoridation.

The report that will go before the SHA, by Professor John Newton, regional director of public health, and Sandra White, a consultant in dental health, states: "It would be both feasible and cost-effective to adjust fluoride levels in the water supply to parts of Southampton."

A spokesman for the PCT added: "Water fluoridation is the single most effective public health measure for preventing tooth decay and improving oral health over a lifetime."

A spokesman for Hampshire Primary Care Trust said no other areas of the county receive fluoridated tap water and there are no plans to introduce it anywhere else in Hampshire.