On reading a report that Coventry Council is drawing up plans to ban smoking in its city centre next year, one of our members sent a Freedom of Information request.
This is the Council’s reply (interpreted and paraphrased for copyright reasons):
Dear …………..
Freedom of Information Act 2000
Thank you. Here is our answer:
1) From what source springs Coventry council’s power to make / amend United Kingdom law and ban the general public from smoking in the open air of a publicly owned facility?
We aren’t banning it. We’re not allowed to ban it. But – we can nag smokers into submission. At our next council meeting, we will decide how best to go about applying this exciting new nagging policy. Exact wording out on 12 January 2012 at www.coventry.gov.uk
2) Please provide details as to how [an outdoor ban] is to be enforced.
There is no ban and there are no plans for one, therefore no enforcement required. Only nagging.
While it is good to see Coventry Council acknowledge its legal impotence in extending the 2006 Health Act, Freedom2Choose will be reminding the Council that ‘denormalisation‘ in any context has no place in a healthy society. Presumably, this ‘campaign to encourage people not to smoke in Millennium Place’ won’t come free? Councils everywhere really ought to understand that…
…Smokers are Council Tax payers too!