Earlier today we put the following question, via Twitter, to Swansea Council and, to be fair, got a very quick reply:
@Action_Choice Hi, vaping is permitted under the trial. thanks
— Swansea Council (@SwanseaCouncil) April 27, 2016
Emboldened by this we then asked for the results of the council's 'smoke free survey' that was designed to gauge public support for extending the smoking ban to more outdoor areas around the city, including beaches.
@SwanseaCouncil Btw, can you send us a link to the results of your Smokefree Survey (Oct 2015)? https://t.co/bDUKeMggKP
— Consumer Choice (@Action_Choice) April 27, 2016
That request was tweeted at 13:02. Come the close of business this evening we were still waiting for a response. In view of their earlier prompt reply it seemed a bit odd. After all, if the information exists why not tweet a link straight away?
Here's how the process was supposed to work. According to a report in the Morning Advertiser a week before the consultation deadline on October 25:
The responses will be considered by a Cabinet Advisory Committee before it makes a recommendation on what steps, if any, the council could take.
Since then however the public has been kept completely in the dark. Nothing more has been heard of the survey – least of all the results – and to the best of my knowledge there has been no public announcement by either the Council or the Cabinet Advisory Committee.
My guess is that the responses didn't support any further bans on smoking in outdoor areas including beaches. I say that for two reasons.
One, if a majority of the public supported a beach smoking ban you would expect the council to use that as justification. Instead there has been no mention of the survey or the public's response.
Two, in December, following a meeting of Brighton and Hove Council's health and wellbeing board (during which it was confirmed that the board would not be recommending an extension of smoke-free areas to beaches, parks and squares), I wrote:
Some of the comments were quite interesting. One councillor seemed to suggest it would be ten years before the idea was proposed again.
Another suggested the Swansea consultation on the same issue had attracted a similar response which, if correct, is also hugely encouraging.
In other words it's my belief that the 'voluntary' ban on smoking on Caswell Bay beach doesn't have public support.
If I'm right it means Swansea Council has ignored the result of its own consultation.
Meanwhile a little digging has uncovered information that supports this view. I'll update this post in the morning.