Beach bores
Sunday, June 22, 2025 at 12:13 I did a couple of interviews last week about smoking on beaches.
One was for BBC Look North (Yorkshire and Humber), the local evening news programme. The other was for the BBC Radio Lincolnshire breakfast programme.
They followed a report that suggested there is ‘overwhelming support' to ban smoking on beaches in East Yorkshire.
Published on June 13, the report was based on a YouGov poll commissioned by ASH. According to the survey, ‘61 per cent of [local] residents support banning smoking on beaches’.
The national poll was conducted several weeks ago and the beach issue was barely commented upon, so I’m not sure why it was raised in East Yorkshire last week.
It was the lead story on Look North on Thursday and before interviewing me on Zoom they ran a report that featured vox pops with several people.
One was a smoker who seemed fairly relaxed about a ban, suggesting that smokers would adapt in the same way most did following the workplace smoking ban. (What he didn’t mention is that smokers adapted because they were threatened with prosecution and fines if they didn’t.)
The reporter also spoke to a vaper who had no problem with a ban on smoking as long as it didn’t include vaping as well. (The short-sightedness of such people never ceases to amaze.)
The BBC News website then asked the question, ‘Should smoking be banned on beaches?’ and included this quote from me:
Simon Clark, director of pro-smoking group Forest, thinks the ban is "absolutely ridiculous".
He says: "Of course smokers should be considerate to people in their immediate vicinity but there is absolutely no justification for a ban on smoking on beaches because there is no health risk to anybody apart from the smoker themselves."
‘Forest,’ it added, ‘encourages smokers to use pocket ashtrays and for local authorities to provide more cigarette bins in public spaces.’
The joke is that for most of the year beaches in Britain are hardly crowded with families sunbathing or picnicking on the sand.
Most smokers know that it’s probably inconsiderate to light up in close proximity to other people, children especially, and for that reason they don’t do it.
For much of the year though beaches are largely empty, bar the occasional dog walker. And just like dog poop, smokers should take their detritus away with them.
But banning smoking on beaches on environmental or public health grounds seems a ludicrous over-reaction to a ‘problem’ that could easily be addressed with a few friendly signs that ask smokers to be ‘considerate’ to other people and the environment.
The issue here is that the anti-smoking industry doesn’t want people to smoke, full stop, so the idea that this issue can be resolved with an agreeable compromise is never going to satisfy their craving for prohibition.
Meanwhile, it’s worth pointing out to the 61% who support a ban on smoking on beaches, be careful what you wish for.
As I said to Peter Levy, presenter of Look North, before you know it the environmental/public health lobby will be wanting to ban adults from taking a bottle of beer on to the beach.
Personally, I added, I hate having to listen to other people’s portable radios on the beach, but I’m not campaigning to have them banned.
Live and let live and all that.
Reader Comments (1)
Why should smokers put up with the stink of vapes if vapers cannot tolerate a wisp of smoke. I really despise the sweet sickly smell of huge clouds of vape hanging in the air. How can anyone prefer it to the organic aroma of a wisp of fresh tobacco burning. Each to their own if only choice was still legal.
It's very difficult to believe any paid for survey by ASH. I suspect the truth is very different and few people care one way or another.
This is just ASH's next logical step towards criminalising smokers because making smoking illegal for everyone asap is their end game.