Smoking Ban - How Torfaen is preparing
What Torfaen Council has been doing
During the first eight months of the ban, Environmental Health and Licensing Officers visited almost 700 premises on an informal basis:
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Many businesses did not have correct signage displayed - our officers provided advice and copies of the notices where necessary
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Members of the public who were seen to be smoking were stopped in Cwmbran Town Centre, where large areas are covered by the ban. These individuals were given informal advice
Officers will continue to visit premises in the future, offering advice and assistance where required. The Welsh Assembly requires us to notify them on a regular basis of our activities - this information is combined with that of other Councils throughout Wales, and can be found on the Smoking Ban Wales website|.
If you have questions about the ban and how it affects you, lots of information can be found on this website, or alternatively contact the Smoking Advice Line on 01633 647623.
How Torfaen County Borough Council prepared for the ban
Three teams – Food, Health and Safety, Licensing and Trading Standards, are responsible for implementing and enforcing the ban as part of their other duties. All officers have completed training in respect of enforcement of the law, and this training was carried out with officers from other authorities across Wales so that we can ensure that we are all enforcing the law in the same way.
We have set up a smoking helpline on 01633 647623, which will act as a central contact point for all queries concerning the smoking ban. These queries will then be passed to the team/officer best able to help. Alternatively, you can contact us by e-mail|.
Three pages in the Council’s residents’ newspaper Torfaen Talks were dedicated to the ban, with articles on giving up smoking, how businesses will be affected, penalties for non-compliance and positive health promotion ideas around exercise nutrition and lifestyle choices, etc.
We have held local seminars for businesses, to help companies and licensees understand the implications for them and to help them understand their responsibilities and duties with this legislation.
We have also attended Pub Watch meetings to explain the new laws to pub landlords etc.
A multi-agency group called the "Smoking Forum" is working collaboratively to share good practice and encourage smokers to quit across all the services provided by the council, police, health care trust, local health board and voluntary sector. This will help us to ensure that we identify positive ways in which local businesses and people can be supported through this period whilst the smoking ban is coming into force.
How are we implementing the ban in our own premises?
All public buildings in Torfaen went smoke free some years ago but in November 2006 the Council’s policy was updated to ban smoking within the grounds of its buildings too.
Public parks however are not covered under the new legislation so whilst we will actively discourage smoking in parks, etc we cannot enforce this at present.
Are we employing extra staff to implement the legislation ?
Implementation of the smoking ban will be carried out by trading standards officers, licensing and environmental health officers as part of their normal duties, as we already visit most of the premises where this ban will apply. We are not currently planning to appoint officers just to deal with the smoking ban.