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Old Colliery Road, Whiston

Whiston Town Council is an independent local council providing additional services to improve the quality of life for the residents of the town. The council has 3 sites, all of which have a function room to be hired out, as well as additional facilities such as an outdoor multi-use games area at Whiston Town Hall. In 2005, the town clerk was tasked with investigating the possibility of making the council premises smoke-free.

There had been some complaints about smoking in the community centres, and there was some concern about the unpleasant smell which welcomed visitors in the lobby due to the smoke.

After a meeting with the Smoke-Free Business Support Officer from Knowsley MBC, the Town Clerk instigated a survey of all groups that used the premises, prioritising their own employees and members first. The George Howard Centre has rented office accommodation and houses employees from other organisations, some of which also require a “smoke-free” environment for their employees; further impetus to act. This group were also surveyed as were the regular users of the community centres, e.g. bingo groups and bowls teams.

The Results revealed only 20% opposition to the implementation of a no-smoking policy across all groups, and 66% were in full support of a comprehensive smoke-free policy for all sites. 93% of respondents supported the councils application for the Gold National Clean Air Award to certify the council as being smoke free and to support the work of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.

The Council announced its new policy in December 2005 for an implementation date of 1st April 2006.

Sandra Mayers, Town Clerk said “There was a lot of concern about the enforcement of this policy. We had signs erected at the entrances to all of our premises and put up notices informing visitors of the policy. Our procedures were clearly written down in our smoke-free policy and to date we have had no flashpoints.”

Another concern during the discussions among council members was that of the potential loss of trade. There was some concern about the anecdotal reports of 30% loss of business in the licensed trade in Ireland. The experiences of other pubs that had already gone smoke- free was analysed, and the potential impact of this worst case scenario on Whiston Town Council.

Cllr Dorothy Corkhill, Leader of Whiston Town Council said “We looked at the revenue generated from the annual bookings in the past 12 months and found that at the very worst, this would cost the council around £500. This was a risk we felt was worth taking, when the potential consequences for ill health were so severe. We also felt that £500 was miniscule when compared to the potential cost incurred from a litigation case against the council for failing to protect one of our employees from exposure to secondhand smoke.”

To date, bookings for the community centre function rooms has been unaffected by the policy, and no losses have been reported in the 5 months since the policy was introduced.

Sandra Mayers commented “Some hirers have actually contacted us to book the hall because of the smoke-free policy.”