By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter
Nottingham is expected to miss the target of being ‘smoke-free’ by 2030 by 10 years.
The Government set a marker in 2019 saying less than five per cent of the population should smoke by 2030.
But in Nottingham, this target is now not expected to be met until 2040.
Nationally, the Government is also on track to miss the ambition by nine years – and in some of the most disadvantaged areas, it could be double.
In Nottingham city, the wards with the highest smoking rates are Aspley (38.5 per cent) and St Ann’s (36.7 per cent).
In Nottinghamshire county, the district with the highest smoking rates is Mansfield (24.8 per cent).
Smoking is estimated to kill 1,124 people in the county each year.
The issue was discussed at Nottingham City Council’s health and wellbeing board on March 29.
Previously, Councillor Dr John Doddy, Chairman of the Health & Wellbeing Board at Nottinghamshire County Council, said the target was “wonderfully ambitious” but “absolutely entirely achievable”.
Papers prepared ahead of the city council meeting say although smoking rates have been reducing, in Nottingham around 16.5 per cent of adults smoke and in the county around 13.3 per cent of adults do so.
This is still higher than the national average of 13 per cent in 2021.
The vision of the group is to reduce the numbers of adults who smoke to five per cent or lower across Nottingham city and Nottinghamshire by 2035.
They add that the aim is for all children born in 2022 to have never picked up a cigarette by the time they turn 18 in 2040.
