Ballymena slow to stub them out
Thursday, 26 June 2008
THE Ballymena Borough Council area has the fifth highest recorded incidents of smoking in public places.
Since smoke-free legislation was introduced on April 30, last year, the Borough has had a total of 63 incidents ranking it above 21 other council districts including Belfast with 19, Coleraine 11, Larne 5 and Ballymoney with only 3.
Castlereagh Borough Council recorded the most incidents of smoking in public places with 185 whilst Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council had the lowest with none.
The statistics were released recently by Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Michael McGimpsey, in response to an Assembly question from MLA Simon Hamilton.
Mr Hamilton asked the Minister "how many incidents of smoking in public places, in contravention of the Smoking Order 2006, have been recorded by each of the 26 local government district councils since it took legal effect on April 30, 2007".
The Minister explained: "Provisional figures up to March 31 show that of 36,240 premises inspected, smoking in a smoke-free place was detected in 1,039 (2.9%) of cases."
In a separate Assembly question from Mr Hamilton regarding prosecutions the Minister explained that provisional figures up to March 31 show that prosecutions have been brought against two people for smoking in a smoke-free place.
He said: "One of the cases is being taken by North Down Borough Council and the other by Lisburn City Council.
“During the same period provisional figures show that 350 written warnings and 34 fixed penalty notices were issued in respect of smoking in a smoke-free place."
