'I don't want to walk through a cloud of smoke' - Councillor calls for smoking ban outside Doncaster pubs and cafes

A senior councillor has called for a ban on smoking outside Doncaster pubs and cafes because ‘it’s not fair on other people’.
Coun Nuala FennellyCoun Nuala Fennelly
Coun Nuala Fennelly

Councillors and health chiefs were discussing a new borough-wide strategy to reduce Doncaster’s stagnating smoking rates to 10 per cent by 2030. The current rate is just shy of 20 per cent.

A meeting of the health and wellbeing board heard a third of Doncaster’s 58,000 smokers will try to quit each year but only three per cent succeed who go ‘cold turkey' with no support.

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Part of the strategy includes a big public awareness campaign which discourages smoking in places like parks, playgrounds and the town centre.

But Balby South councillor Nuala Fennelly, who is also cabinet member for children and schools, went a step further calling on owners of cafes and pubs to tell people to stop smoking directly outside their premises.

A smoking ban in beer gardens and al-fresco dining areas was blocked by the Government in 2017 after ministers warned they would ‘infringe on people's freedom and lead to pub closures’.

The proposal was put forward by a group of health authorities and councils in London with the support of Mayor Sadiq Khan but failed to gain Whitehall approval.

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Coun Fennelly said: "One thing I find really irritating is when there's nice weather and you go to a café or a pub and you want to you have to sit outside with people smoking.

"Getting public businesses like cafes and pubs to say to people you're not going to sit outside and smoke because that's not fair on other people who don't smoke.

"I went and sat inside a pub a couple of weeks ago because there was about 15 people smoking with loads of kids running around on the play area next to it.

"I think that's quite a big problem we have across Doncaster. I think it's a genuine issue because I don't want to walk through a cloud of smoke to get into a pub and I'm an ex-smoker so if I don't want to do it then others won't.

"If we can get pubs and businesses to say to people you can sit outside but you're not sitting there smoking - it should be a non-smoking area."