Would you like to see smoking banneds in outdoor dining areas and at workplace fag break spots? 

Oxfordshire could be the first county in England to go 'smoke-free' by the year 2025, as a plan agreed by public health officials before the pandemic began in February last year finally gets underway.

But would you like to see something similar in Colchester and north Essex?

Smoke-free is officially recognised by the Government as when five per cent of the population or less are smokers.

In July 2019, the Government stated its ambition of going “smoke-free” by 2030 in England.

Over the last 35 years, smoking rates in Britain have halved.

According to Cancer Research UK, currently around 14 per cent of UK adults smoke cigarettes. 

Smoking is the largest cause of cancer in the UK and it can cause at least 15 different types of cancer.

Oxfordshire's smoking strategy this year includes what has been billed as creating more spaces where people feel 'empowered' not to smoke.

This would include encouraging employers to stop the habit outside offices and factories, or by creating smoke-free areas in newly created pavement dining areas.

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Oxfordshire's public health director, Ansaf Azhar described the strategy as a 'long game' to change smoking culture, with the aim of preventing deaths from diseases linked to tobacco.

He also told the county's health improvement partnership board: "It is not about telling people not to smoke, it is about moving and creating an environment in which not smoking is encouraged and they are empowered to do so. But that is not going to happen overnight."