And now for some good news
Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 17:31 Further to previous posts ...
Local Government Minister Bob Neill has sought to clarify newspaper reports that councils may ban smoking in parks and cars:
“Reports suggesting that the Localism Bill will allow the introduction of smoking bans in public places are wide off the mark. There is nothing in this Bill that provides additional powers to prohibit smoking in open spaces or in private cars.
“We are giving councils a general power of competence - this will allow them to do the things that any individual generally could. It will particularly help councils find new ways to work to save money and protect frontline services. But that does not permit the introduction of new regulation on the broader public.”
I also have it on good authority (from a different government source) that the papers that reported the story "didn't bother to contact us" to check the facts.
Reader Comments (7)
Sorry for being a bit dim here, but maybe someone smarter than me in legal matters could explain how a council can "do the things that an individual generally could?" I read it in the draft Bill, too, and was confused then! An individual couldn't, for example, suddenly impose new systems to save money on public services, could they? And nor could a local council, for example, go into a shop and buy a packet of cigarettes? So how can the two be compared?
On another tack, might the fact that the newspapers have manufactured a completely artificial "smoking-related" story out of the news of this new legislation be an indication that they've had a prod from some of the big-time anti-smoking groups for being rather lax of late in keeping anti-smoking hysteria alive and well and firmly in the public's consciousness? Because smoking and all-things-smoking-related certainly don't seem to be the headline news any more that they used to be.
A quote that might have to be wheeled out to over-zealous LAs drunk on the misguided prospect of unlimited powers.
Clarified on conservativehome
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/localgovernment/2011/08/localism-bill-will-not-allow-councils-to-ban-smoking-in-open-spaces.html
@ Misty - Don't worry, the BBC manage to maintain an average of two "And another danger of smoking is..." stories a week. They must have a direct "hotline" to the ASH offices...
Surely you must have heard the beeb's report last week about women smokers suffering more heart problems than men smokers?
'Women who smoke cigarettes are more likely to develop heart disease than men, says new research released on Wednesday'. This crap has been dredged up from 1998.
Off memory Council by laws will now longer have to be approved by government. They could use these to ban smoking in parks etc. Where they would probably struggle is the highway, smoking in cars etc
Indeed Carl - I think we need to be careful not to be fooled. Recent correspondence with Anne Milton via my MP has shown that the Govt is determined to force us to quit through discrimination, public bullying and exclusion so I wonder where that leaves the con trick that council's can't ban smoking in parks. Oh yes they can if they want and would probably be encouraged to do so though the DoH and it's Third Sector partners.
I can't believe the DoH would plan our demise so carefully and not plug the freedom gap left by councils. Milton herself said ages ago that the localism bill could be used in this way.
BTW - Milton also says ASH has no special place in Govt. The relationship works because ASH hates us as much as Govt but Govt backed smoker hatred is open to competition so anyone who can think of even better ways to lie and terrify the general public to become smokerphobic enough to shun and avoid us will get the job.
The only thing is, I wonder who is ASH's competition. Surely no other organisation in the UK hate smokers more than ASH. We'll have to wait and see if ASH gets funding this year to torture us more or that goes elsewhere.