Rethink ordered on smoking moves

HEALTH bosses have been told to think again about plans to deter Oldham’s youngsters from smoking after council-leader Howard Sykes described their ideas as being from a different planet.

Leaders from all over the county decided not to sign up to three proposals from the Greater Manchester Health Commission: imposing higher certificates on films that show smoking, cutting council grants to theatres and sports grounds which allow smoking, and using planning legislation to force shops to move cigarettes away from check-outs.

But the council bosses claimed the health experts had gone too far and the proposals could even end up with classic movies like “Casablanca”given X certificates.

Councillor Sykes told a meeting of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities in Bury: “Sometimes enthusiasts for this cause do their own case more harm than good.

“Some things in the health commission report are good but others are from a different planet.”

There was laughter when the executive leader of Tameside Council, Roy Oldham, suggested that even Popeye could end up X-rated.

Richard Leese (Manchester) quipped that Popeye did not, in fact, use his famous pipe for tobacco but for performance-enhancing substances.

The AGMA leaders were discussing the Health Commission’s report: Tobacco, health, and health inequalities: a manifesto for action.

Councillor Oldham asked: “Are we going to ban cigarettes from duty-free?

“You have to be careful where you are going with this kind of thing. Let’s remember that we own Manchester Airport.

“It might be good to save children’s live by stopping people smoking in front of them but when you start censoring films, it all becomes a bit Cromwellian.”

Health officials insisted that there was no intention of trying to ban cigarette sales from the airport and one added: “Twenty years ago when we tried to stop smoking in pubs, we were regarded as ridiculous.”

The leaders backed the idea of a manifesto in principle but told the officials to rethink the detail.