Employees and members of the public will soon be asked to "stub it out" before entering Council grounds.

Over the next few months smoking shelters will be removed and signage will appear in the grounds of:

• Municipal Buildings
• Sealock House
• The Forum
• Abbotsford House
• Carronbank House
• Denny Town House
• Earls Road
• Dalgrain Depot
• Inchyra Depot

Michael Durrington, Senior Health, Safety and Wellbeing Advisor said: “We carried out a consultation a year ago and 74% of respondents felt that council buildings should become smoke free and 9% felt they were exposed to secondhand smoke at work. Over the next few months we will begin to remove smoking shelters within our grounds and erect signage to highlight our grounds are now smoke free zones. We hope to be able to make a start on this in the lead up to national No Smoking Day on March 11th when lots of help will be available to anyone wishing to quit the habit.”

Four hackathons will be held from February with smokers who work in the nine council buildings to find out what support will be needed to help with the change. More information, including how to sign up for the hackathons, will be posted on the employee webpage and will be available from managers shortly.

The smoke free zones are part of the Council’s Employee Wellbeing Strategy approved in October 2019.

Want to stamp it out? 10 self-help tips to stop smoking