Ifs and butts

As the Echo revealed on Tuesday, a comprehensive study has concluded that the majority of people surveyed in the town want to see smoking outlawed in hospitals, sports centres, restaurants, bars and places of work.

It has taken the best part of a year to carry out the research and collate the facts and figures.

But all that legwork puts Poole in the forefront of towns and cities considering possible smoking bans.

While Liverpool might grab the headlines as it seeks to become the first "smoke free" city, it is Poole which has pioneered the way with a comprehensive study of the issue and widespread consultation.

With such evidence the town is in a strong position to take a qualified decision on whether or not to pursue such a ban.

The borough's likely route will take shape in the coming months and may result in it following Liverpool seeking a bylaw to impose smoking restrictions.

But how has the Borough of Poole reached its current position?

The wheels were set in motion in 2003 following a suggestion by councillors Peter Adams and David Gillard that the council elicit the views of residents on smoking.

At the start of this year the Echo conducted a week-long debate and readers' survey with results fed into the growing mass of data being collected by the council's smoking issue working party.

Evidence was taken from experts advocating for or against smoking, while public meetings and surveys at area committees brought further views.

Then there were 1,089 respondents from the Poole Opinion Panel - a council mechanism to gather views from residents.

The answers were processed by the Market Research Group at Bournemouth University and passed to the Dorset Research and Development Support Unit.

Of those surveyed 19 per cent were smokers and 81 per cent non-smokers or former smokers, representing a close collation with national estimates.

The responses were strikingly similar to the earlier Daily Echo survey.

A graph of the results shows that people are most in favour of having smoke-free hospitals, schools and cinemas, and are least worried about smoking in betting shops and nightclubs.

Almost half of the people said they were bothered "a great deal" by other people's smoke in enclosed public places, with a further 40 per cent saying they were bothered a fair amount or a little.

The vast majority of respondents were annoyed by the smell of smoke in their hair and clothes after a night out and thought everyone should have the right to breathe in clear air, free of tobacco smoke.

Almost a third said they would go to restaurants more often if there was a smoking ban, and a slightly higher percentage said they would go more often to smoke-free pubs.

A teenage boy surveyed said: "If I was going for a job and I realised it was a smoking environment like in a bar or a club, I wouldn't take the job."

Another youth told the focus group he'd watched his grandad die and his desperately-ill father take oxygen because of smoking.

"We've been though quite a lot and seen what smoking can do to people," he said.

Almost 90 per cent of the people surveyed said they thought passive smoking carries serious health risks for non-smokers.

A ban on smoking would be good news for Poole's director of public health, Dr Adrian Dawson, who said it would help him support smokers who are trying to give up as well as improving things for passive smokers and asthma sufferers.

Borough of Poole policy director Fred Davies added: "We have consulted and know that 80 per cent of the public are in favour of this. No other council has gone into that amount of detail.

"We have found that businesses are saying they are quite happy if there is a ban that is national, so that it is a level playing field. But if there is not a national ban there is quite a lot of pressure on Poole council because we have now heard what the public wants."

First published: October 27