Manchester could be 'smoke-free' in certain areas by the end of this year as the city looks to follow in the footsteps of Melbourne and New York.
People smoking in selected city centre outdoor spaces would be asked to stub out their cigarette or leave the smoke-free zone as part of a new pilot project. Currently there are no plans to bring in by-laws or fines for people caught smoking, with an 'education-first' approach, offering smokers support to quit, favoured.
Piccadilly Gardens, St Peter's Square and the area around Manchester Town Hall are all being considered as potential smoke-free outdoor public spaces. Banning smoking around the Etihad Stadium has also been suggested - so what do people think of the plan? Manchester Evening News reporter Louisa Gregson headed to these busy areas to find out.
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Rez Ali, 30, is an office worker who lives in New Islington and is taking a break in St Peter's Square. He says of the impending ban: "It does not bother me because I am not a heavy smoker but I think it takes away people's freedom.
"It is a public place. I can see why it was banned inside as second-hand smoking is quite dangerous but in open places I don't think it is harmful."
Smoker Nouf Amar, 40, is from Saudi Arabia and studying in Manchester. The mother-of-one believes a ban should be imposed in Piccadilly Gardens - but there should be a designated area for smokers nearby.
She says: "Children are here, when I am smoking I go away from children - because it is a bad habit. I think they should ban smoking here, but make sure there is an area smokers can go to."
Patrik Stransky, 30, lives in Wythenshawe and works in hygiene and production. He says he thinks a ban in St Peter's Square is different to Piccadilly Gardens.
He says: "I think it is OK to ban smoking in St Peter's Square as people are just walking through and walking about but in Piccadilly Gardens I don't agree as people are sitting down there and relaxing. A ban in those two places is very different from each other."
Mark Bolton, an office worker from Oldham, cites cleaner streets as a good reason for the ban. He says: "I recently gave up smoking myself, so I would encourage people to do it.
"It is an interesting thing to try and there may be less cigarette butts on the streets and they will be cleaner. Any way to get smoke free is a good thing."
Smoking tobacco is the single largest cause of preventable deaths globally and in Greater Manchester more than 5,000 adults die from smoking-related diseases every year. It is estimated that smoking rates in Greater Manchester have fallen to 14.9 pc – around 350,000 people.
But, smoking rates vary across the city-region with stark differences between neighbouring boroughs. For example, Manchester’s smoking rate is 20.8 pc, one in five adults, whereas Trafford's is 8.5 pc, roughly one in 12 – one of the lowest in the country.
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Greater Manchester is set to receive $100,000 - around £79,000 - from the Partnership for Healthy Cities, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the World Health Organization and Vital Strategies to create the smoke-free spaces and change cultural and societal attitudes to smoking.
This funding will be used to ask members of the public, visitors, community groups, local businesses and residents which spaces they would like to see made smoke-free, and to install signs in the selected smoke-free spaces.
But local leaders say there is already strong support for smoke-free spaces. In 2018, almost 78 pc of people surveyed agreed that smoke-free spaces are a good idea, with particular concerns raised about the impact of smoking on children and young people.
When asked which outdoor spaces should be smoke-free, the public favoured children’s playgrounds (93 pc), school entrances (92 pc), outside public libraries and town halls (72 pc), public parks (65 pc) and outdoor events (60 pc). The first phase of the project will be delivered by Manchester council in collaboration with NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care, and takes learnings from the likes of Melbourne in Australia and New York in the USA which have implemented similar initiatives in the metropolitan cities.
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