Youngsters in Swindon are urged not to take up vaping when they receive a visit at school from the borough council’s public health teams.

And chief executive of the authority Susie Kemp thinks it would be a sign of success in achieving a smoke-free Swindon if there were fewer vape shops due to dropping demand.

Members of the council’s health and wellbeing board - which includes health professionals, councillors and officers, the police and fire service and patients’ representatives - last week heard from one of Euclid Street’s public health consultants Rachel Clark on the council’s plans to cut smoking in the borough.

Ms Clark said: “Smoking costs Swindon £71m every year in health and social care, fires and lost productivity due to smoking-related illness.

“For an individual, it can cost up to £2,000 a year, which, especially for those in the most deprived areas, is a huge amount in a cost-of-living crisis.”

Ms Clark said the council had set itself ambitious targets on cutting the prevalence of smoking: in the adult population from 12.5 per cent to 5 per cent and in routine and manual workers from 22.9 per cent to below 10 per.

The council also wants to cut the proportion of women who smoke at the time of delivery from 8.5 per cent to below 5 per cent and among children aged 15 from 7 per cent to below 5 per cent.

She said: “We know we won’t get to zero per cent, but if we aim for a really low prevalence, we’re more likely to get the figures down.”

Chief executive of the council, Susie Kemp, asked about vaping, particularly among young people, and she said: “I always think a sign of success in getting people to stop would be fewer vape shops because the demand isn’t there. But they look so attractive to young people, I'm a bit concerned.”

Ms Clark said: “Research shows that vaping is less dangerous than smoking, though the long-term effects aren’t as well known, yet.

"But one of the things we say to pupils in schools is ‘Don’t start vaping. It’s not cool.’  But the evidence suggests that not many of them are coming to vaping without smoking first.”

Chairman of the board Brian Ford said there has already been much progress since he became the cabinet member for adults and health in 2016. He said: “The rate of smoking then was 22 per cent, so to get it down to 12.5 per cent has been really good work.”