Local residents have failed in their bid to get smoking banned in their road which borders a local hospital.

Since smoking was banned in the grounds of the hospital up to 30 people allegedly gather at any one time to light up.

According to reports most are nurses and ancillary workers.

Three hundred residents signed a petition in favour of banning smoking in their street but the council has rightly rejected the idea, arguing it would be impossible to enforce.

As it happens I have some sympathy for residents because I wouldn't fancy that many people gathering near my house, some in the middle of the night.

But prohibition isn't the answer because even if you could enforce it all that does is divert the 'problem' elsewhere.

The solution is screamingly obvious to me (but I'm not a highly paid hospital administrator).

Patients, staff and visitors must be allowed to smoke on hospital grounds, if not everywhere then at least in designated smoking areas.

It's not rocket science but the war on tobacco seems to have dulled people's ability to make the simplest decisions.

No wonder the NHS is in such a mess.