Agenda item

Report of the Director of Community and  Children’s Services/Director of Open Spaces

The Committee were informed of the proposal of implementing voluntary no smoking codes within children’s playgrounds, for a trial period of six months, in four identified areas in the City:

·       Middlesex Street estate

·       Tower Hill Gardens

·       Portsoken Street

·       West Smithfield Rotunda Garden

Officers informed Members that the key aim of smokefree children’s playgrounds was to deter children and young people from smoking. In response to a query, Members noted that the objectives included to:

·       Reduce child exposure to smoking and help to decrease the number of young people starting to smoke.

·       Decrease cigarette litter such as cigarette ends, empty packets and wrappers to playgrounds more pleasant and to protect wildlife.

·       Reduce the risk of children putting toxic cigarettes ends into their mouths

·       A consultation exercise has been carried out with the public and Friends of City

·       Gardens, which evidenced support for this initiative.

In response to a query regarding enforcement, Members were informed that this was a voluntary scheme, but the success would be measured through visits to the areas at the start, middle and end of the trial.

Members noted that the proposal was for a six month trial, after which the results would be reported back to the Committee. Members also noted that this was a voluntary scheme and the signs to be placed at playgrounds should not be misleading about the City’s powers relating to this scheme. Members also noted that there were now a range of places where people were either not allowed to smoke or encouraged not to smoke; therefore the City Corporation should act responsibly sympathetic. It was also noted that there were now a number of smoking cessation groups available within the City.

A Member raised concerns regarding the six month trial. He noted that the displacement of smokers firstly out of indoor public spaces and now an outdoor space in rapid succession. He expressed concerns about those (business electors, residential electors and other users of City spaces) for whom smoking remained a cultural norm, whose interests he believed we should consider. For these reasons he said that we should monitor the results of the trial closely, with no presumption of it rolling out more widely before those results were analysed. The Member also stated that the City should not "overreach": he noted that the signage proposals currently indicated that the City Corporation had the powers to stop smoking in playgrounds, and as this is not the case the signage should clearly state that this was a voluntary scheme.

RESOLVED: That Members:

 Agreed the smokefree children’s playgrounds’ proposal in principle

 Agreed the three playgrounds under their remit where the proposal should be implemented for a trial period as below:

o Tower Hill Gardens

o Portsoken Street

o West Smithfield Rotunda Garden