£2.5 million - that's how much Smokefree South West costs the public per year

Further to my previous post, Dick Puddlecote writes:

Listen carefully, you might just hear a gravy train coming off the rails down in the South West ...

DP then lists the public health teams/local authorities who contributed a whopping £2.5 to Smokefree South West in 2010/11.

(In 2012, in addition to what I imagine was a very similar sum, SFSW also received £450,000 to run Plain Packs Protect, the most obvious example of political lobbying, and government lobbying government, I have ever seen.)

Note that Dick had to make a series of Freedom of Information requests to get these figures because Smokefree South West sure as hell didn't post them on their website.

He adds:

Congratulations to the councils concerned for recognising that this is something which shouldn't be consuming such a large proportion of our taxes.

Seeing as so many other groups have so much to say on tobacco control, let them put their own money up instead of ripping off the public and getting their pharma industry lobbying done at our expense.

Full post: Turning off the tax tap (Dick Puddlecote)

Comments

[Xopher]

Silly me, I stupidly thought the NHS was there to fund nurses and nursing not nannies and nannying.

[mark]

It is completely wrong for councils to give any tax payer money to these organisations as the NHS is at breaking point.

[Adam]

Talking of the South West I wonder how much of that £2.5M could of spent on flood defences?