Another beach in Wales goes 'smoke free' (sic)
Wednesday, April 27, 2016 at 7:40 A second beach in Wales has been pronounced 'smoke free'.
Speaking on behalf of Forest I'm quoted by the BBC as follows:
"The council is treating adults like children. The overwhelming majority of smokers know to smoke with consideration for those around them. The council should allow them to use their common sense without imposing yet another petty regulation."
See Voluntary beach smoking ban at Swansea's Caswell Bay starts (BBC News).
Interestingly there's no mention of the council's policy on vaping. Nor is there any mention of the public consultation Swansea Council conducted last year.
Widely reported at the time I've read nothing about it since. (The BBC was also unaware of a consultation report.)
The only thing I have heard is a councillor in Brighton saying the result of the Swansea consultation was similar to that in Brighton - ie, a massive rejection of a beach smoking ban.
We'll be contacting the council this morning. If we get a reply I'll let you know.
Update: The story, with quotes from Forest, can also be found on the ITV News website (Voluntary smoking ban trialled at second Welsh beach).
Meanwhile the South Wales Evening Post has this report, Smoking group fumes over 'voluntary ban' on cigarettes on Caswell Bay, that includes some additional comments from Forest:
"Smoking in the open air poses no risk to anyone else's health, nor is there evidence that the sight of a stranger smoking encourages children to smoke.
"Youth smoking rates are currently at their lowest levels ever so this policy is both intrusive and unnecessary.
"If litter is an issue the council should provide cigarette bins to help smokers dispose of their butts.
Unfortunately many councils refuse to do this because they say it normalises smoking. Well, they can't have it both ways.
"This is not about health. It's about councils micro-managing our lives in a way that would have been inconceivable a generation ago."
Reader Comments (7)
"We know......" always prefixes some made up crap. I am sick of them exploiting children to learn that intolerance, abuse, and selfishness are qualities they should value. Hands off our kids and stop using them. The real child abusers are those at smoker hating quango ASH.
Smokers should congregate on this beach and enjoy a smoke and tell the council to 'FUCK OFF'.
How can you have a voluntary ban? Ban means prohibit or forbid.
'Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some see this as a negative act (equating it to a form of censorship or discrimination) and others see it as maintaining the "status quo".'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ban_(law)
'To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_quo
Shun Caswell Bay then, nobody wants to go where they aren't wanted.
If they don't want to see you, they won't want to see your money either.
Air, sea, salt spray, crashing surf, wide skies, west winds from the Atlantic, freedom, and a wisp of smoke from a burning herb. Would they even notice a half a dozen tractors driving across the beach on the daily litter clean? This is institutionalised paranoia.
Rather than call it a "voluntary' ban (which sounds like newspeak) they should call it what it is persecution of smokers through psychological coercion. Reject outdoors smoking bans!
...Suzanne Cass continued, “Chemical-filled cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world with over <4 Trillion tonnes being dropped annually>. A voluntary ban on smoking here will have a huge impact on preserving this area’s natural beauty by reducing litter which pollutes our beaches and waterways.”
http://ashwales.org.uk/en/whats-new/swansea-beauty-spot-to-become-wales-second-smokefree-beach
Erm...that's about 180% of all global trash.