By English councils ban outdoor smoking at pubs and restaurants.
Six local authorities in England have banned people from smoking on stretches of pavements where venues have outdoor seating.
It follows moves by the Government which are looking to make England smoke-free in less than a decade.
An attempt to make pavements smoke-free through an amendment in the House of Lords last summer failed, but outdoor eating and drinking as a result of the pandemic has brought new attention to the issue.
In July 2019, the UK Government set out its ambition for England to be smoke-free by 2030, according to SmokeFreeAction.
The roadmap claims: “Big Tobacco makes excessive profits from selling a highly addictive and lethal product, so it should be forced to pay the price to end the smoking epidemic.”
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Smokers in Northumberland, Durham, North Tyneside, Newcastle and the City of Manchester will have to find alternative places to light up, as councils have banned smoking where restaurants and bars have been granted licences to put out tables on the pavement.
Ansaf Azhar, Oxfordshire’s public health director, said last week that the new strategy was aimed at preventing deaths from illnesses linked with tobacco use. “It’s not about telling people not to smoke. It is about moving and creating an environment in which not smoking is encouraged and they are empowered to do so,” he said.
A report by Dr Adam Briggs, the public health official leading Oxfordshire’s strategy, found that smoking was the leading cause of preventable deaths across the county, which ultimately cost the public purse £120m.
He laid the blame for these deaths and associated costs with the tobacco industry. “We have got a condition that is entirely a commercially driven cause of death and disease,” he said. “It is impossible to be on the wrong side of history with tobacco consumption.”
