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Smoking Outside Banned In 5 Councils In England

By Modupeoluwa Adekanye

03 June 2021   |   10:33 am

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Five councils in England have banned smoking outside pubs, cafes, and restaurants with others now considering joining them as the Government tries to make the country smoke-free within the next decade. Newcastle City Council, Manchester City Council, Durham County Council, Northumberland County Council and North Tyneside Council have all banned smoking on the pavements where…

Smoking Outside Banned In 5 Councils In England

Five councils in England have banned smoking outside pubs, cafes, and restaurants with others now considering joining them as the Government tries to make the country smoke-free within the next decade.

Newcastle City Council, Manchester City Council, Durham County Council, Northumberland County Council and North Tyneside Council have all banned smoking on the pavements where outdoor hospitality venues have tables.

Also, Oxfordshire County Council is set to follow suit under plans for the first smoke-free county, with employers expected to ask to enforce smoke-free spaces outside shops, offices, and factories to help staff kick their habit.

A seventh local authority, Gateshead Council, does not have an official policy on smoking outdoors, but all the licenses it grants to venues state that pavement cafes must be smoke-free, reported the Guardian.

In Oxfordshire, officials will work with the NHS and other local organisations to end smoking near hospitals, play parks, and school gates. People will also be discouraged from smoking at home and in their cars.

It is part of the push to make the county smoke-free by 2025, five years ahead of the national target, in proposals in the Oxfordshire Tobacco Control Strategy discussed by the county’s health improvement board last week.

However, a smokers’ lobby group said it was ‘no business of local councils if adults choose to smoke’ – and it follows a failed attempt last summer to push through an amendment in the House of Lords to make pavements smoke-free.

Another organisation that campaigns for vaping said it ‘seems fashionable again to attack smokers instead of helping them’ and the five councils ‘don’t care about the individual smoker’s health, they care about looking good’.

The pubs’ industry has suffered a torrid period since the indoor smoking ban in England became active in July 2007, with 11,400 fewer venues open one decade later amid claims that the two were closely linked.