Millennium Square 'smoke free' for Olympic Games

[dutchman]

Coventry has decided to create a ‘smoke-free square’ for the duration of the Olympic Games this summer.



Last year the Telegraph exclusively revealed how city chiefs wanted to stop smoking in Millennium Place, where they hope families will gather to watch sport on the big screen.

However, it soon emerged the city council did not have the power to ban smoking in an outdoor area. So Coventry’s Smokefree Alliance proposed a low cost campaign urging people not to light up in Millennium Place during the Games.

That has now been given the go ahead by Coventry City Council.

Coun Joe Clifford, the council’s cabinet member for health and chairman of the Coventry Smokefree Alliance, has been a key supporter of the project and welcomed the news. The Olympics is synonymous with health, fitness and sporting excellence – everything that smoking is not,” he said.

“Millennium Place is going to be a focal point for the city’s Olympic celebrations and we want to make it as attractive as we can to families and young children.”