Mansfield District Council’s new Portfolio Holder for the Environment, Coun Andrew Tristram, has signed a charter signing up the authority to an action plan to reduce smoking in the district.

The charter is called the Nottinghamshire County and Nottingham City Declaration on Tobacco Control, which Mansfield District Council agreed to support last year.

The signing of the declaration will initiate an action plan in the district that will include:

•Ongoing action to enforce smoke-free legislation in all premises, including taxis.
•Training for environmental health officers on how to identify counterfeit tobacco to help them spot the sale of fake tobacco during inspections of food retail premises where tobacco is on sale.
•Training for council enforcement officers, neighbourhood wardens, so they can be the eyes and ears in spotting retailers selling counterfeit tobacco.
•Investigating the possibility of banning smoking in children’s play areas.
•Ongoing action to reduce smoking in the workplace – both at Mansfield District Council premises and by advising businesses in the district.

The aim of the declaration is to reduce smoking in the county and support a national target to reduce adult smoking prevalence from a national average of 19.5% to 18.5% by 2015/16 and, ultimately, the vision of a smoke-free Nottinghamshire. In the Mansfield district, the prevalence of smoking is significantly above the national average, standing at 26.3%.

A reduction in smoking would have significant benefits to the local economy by:
•Improving people’s health and quality of life, particularly in deprived areas
•Increasing household incomes
•Improving the life chances of children by cutting their exposure to second-hand smoke and reducing their chances of taking up smoking
•Reducing the costs of dealing with smoking related fires
•Reducing the costs of tobacco related litter
•Reducing serious and organised crime linked to the sale of counterfeit tobacco

Signing the declaration commits the district council to settings standards on tobacco control, developing an action plan to reduce smoking and to protect this work from the commercial and vested interests of the tobacco industry by not accepting any partnerships, payments, gifts and services offered by the tobacco industry.

Coun Tristram said: “Signing this declaration will build on work we are already committed to, both as an employer and as a public protection authority, to reduce the prevalence of smoking and iron out some of the health inequalities we see in this area as result of tobacco use.”