SMOKING was banned from dozens of Merseyside playgrounds from today.
Anyone who lights up in any Wirral’s 75 play areas will be asked to put it out.
Heart Of Mersey, the campaign group behind the plan, said smokers will not be forced to stub out or be threatened with fines – but they will be expected to stick to a voluntary code.
Special signs designed by Hayfield school, in Upton, will be put in all council-run play areas requesting children can “Play Smokefree”.
Wirral council is the third in the country to sign up to the voluntary smokefree code after Pendle and Halton.
Heart Of Mersey now wants to get more on board and wants all nine councils in Cheshire and Merseyside to sign up by the end of the year.
Its tobacco control programme leader Jo McCullagh said the aim was to “denormalise” smoking so children were discouraged from taking up the habit in later years.
She said: “Children learn their behaviour from adults and so it is essential tobacco use is not seen as part of everyday life in our communities.
“For example, children who live with smokers are at least twice as likely to become smokers themselves. We are working across Cheshire and Merseyside in partnership with all councils and primary care trusts to protect future generations from taking up the habit.”
The Play Smokefree code was developed by Heart Of Mersey, a heart health charity, with Cheshire and Merseyside Tobacco Alliance, the council and the NHS.
Before the smokefree code was put in place, work was done to test to level of public support. A survey of Wirral residents, 39.5% of whom were smokers, showed more than 80% were in favour of a voluntary code of not smoking in playgrounds.
The group is confident the public will stick by the code without enforcement but gardeners and park wardens were trained to give out information and remind people not to smoke in play areas. Smoking is still allowed in other areas of parks.
Research shows that reducing child exposure to smoking decreases the uptake of smoking amongst young people in the long term.
Fiona Johnstone, Director of Public Health for Wirral Council and NHS Wirral says smoking among young people is a particular problem in the Borough:
“Nationally, 15% of 15 year olds are current smokers and an estimated 330,000 children under the age of 16 try cigarettes for the first time each year. However the rate among young people in Wirral is higher with 18% of 14-17 year olds smoking. We’re delighted to support this scheme as part of a comprehensive plan towards reducing rates in our area.”
Launching the scheme, Cllr Brian Kenny, Wirral Council's Cabinet member for the Environment said: “We’re committed to the role our parks play in helping Wirral residents’ live active, healthy lifestyles and this voluntary scheme empowers our local communities themselves to change their smoking behaviour. Discouraging smoking around children in our play areas will help to reduce the number of young people in Wirral that smoke.”
Internationally, smoking in public housing play areas and parks is already banned in Spain, Hong Kong, Latvia, Singapore and in cities in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and USA, including San Francisco and New York.
In the North West, Pendle Council in Lancashire has made all of their play parks smokefree and in Cheshire, Halton Borough Council introduced a voluntary smokefree code to all of their 71 outdoor play areas in 2011.
