Six more regions ban smoking outside pubs and restaurants in bid to go smoke-free by 2025
SIX councils in England have now banned smoking outside pubs, cafes and restaurants in a bid to make the country smoke-free by 2025.
Newcastle City Council, Manchester City Council and Durham County Council have all axed cigarettes on pavements where outdoor hospitality venues have tables.
Northumberland County Council and North Tyneside Council are also telling outside drinkers to stub it out.
And Gateshead Council does not have an official policy in place but all licences state pavement cafes must be smoke-free.
The local authorities have followed Oxford, who plan to ban smoking outside of bars and restaurants when lockdown ends.
The city is hoping to wipe out the habit completely by 2025 - five years ahead of the government's target.
Officials are also hoping to ban smoking near hospitals, play parks and school gates.
Smokers will also be discouraged from lighting up in their cars and at home under the drive.
Deborah Arnott, the chief executive of Ash (Action on Smoking and Health), said: “Our surveys show that two-thirds of the public want areas outside pubs and cafes to be smoke-free.
“It is not like this is not on anyone’s radar. People complain a lot that if they go outside, they have to sit among smokers.”
And Hazel Cheeseman, the charity's director of policy, added: "It’s right for councils to consider where it’s still acceptable to smoke – two thirds of the public already believe there is no place for smoking where we eat and drink.
"Removing smoking from places where we socialise, congregate, eat and drink will contribute to the cultural change needed to make smoking obsolete.
"But no one measure is going to end smoking in the next decade. To do this we need further regulation and, crucially, funding for the support England’s 6 million smokers need to quit."
The government is hoping to make all of England smoke-free in less than a decade.
Priorities for the county's smoking strategy this year include creating more spaces where people feel “empowered” not to smoke.
This would include encouraging employers to stop the habit outside offices and factories, or by creating smoke-free areas in newly-created pavement dining areas.
MPs called on ministers earlier this year to take advantage of Brexit by slashing tight controls on safer alternatives to ciggies.
And England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty recently launched a stinging attack on tobacco firms - saying smoking killed more people than Covid last year.
He said: "Smoking is gradually drifting down over time, but it is still a very major cause of mortality.
“The standard estimate is that it causes over 90,000 deaths every year.
“So this year and last year, it is likely more people will have died of smoking-related disease than Covid.”
'DAMAGING DECISION'
But campaigners have slammed the move, claiming that it will “persecute no protect” smokers.
Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, blasted the plans, saying it will hurt an already wounded sector, saying today: "The pandemic has been the worst period our pubs have ever had to endure - months of closure followed by periods of severely reduced trading.
"We would encourage all local authorities to work with the sector in helping us get back on our feet, not burdening us with more red tape at the worst possible time."
And Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said: "This damaging decision would be a hugely disproportionate step and will inevitably deter customers from pubs, bars and restaurants - businesses that already find themselves in a very fragile state following months of closure and over a year of severely disrupted trading."
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Simon Clark, director of the smokers' lobby group Forest (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking), said: "It's no business of local councils if adults choose to smoke, and if they smoke outside during working hours that's a matter for them and their employer not the council.
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"Nor should it be the role of councillors to force smokers to quit by extending the indoor smoking ban to any outdoor area where there is no risk to non-smokers."
There are 6.9million smokers and 3.2million vapers in the UK, with a country considering itself smoke free if less than five per cent of the population lights up.