Puffed up, not puffed out
Forest kick the habit
Nottingham Forest Football Club kicked off this season in August with a new signing: a smoke-free charter. Forest is a smoke-free zone - with no smoking beyond the turnstiles and in the hospitality areas, received a Gold National Clean Air Award in September.
Nottingham Forest signed up to a smoke-free Rushcliffe and is working with Rushcliffe Borough Council’s health development officer Rose Melvin to make the ground even more family friendly, butt bins have been placed at entrance points to prevent unwanted litter. Fans are reminded that the club is smoke-free via email footers and smoke-free messages on booking forms and match day programmes. All indoor areas and offices are smoke-free.
Forest employs 50 permanent staff and 200 temporary staff - smokers who want to quit are paid to attend a ‘stopping smoking’ programme. New Leaf, the NHS Stop Smoking Service provides the sessions and is also present at matches to offer advice to supporters. On match day, trained, eagle-eyed stewards ask any fan who lights up to put it out or risk being ejected! Of course almost everyone is happy to oblige, so this has been an empty threat.
Consultation with the fan’s, was critical to the moves success. Public relations manager, Brandon Furse, said: “We devised a questionnaire for our season ticket holders asking them for their thoughts. When the results came back, 80% wanted to see some type of change and over 50% called for a total ban. These are our most loyal fans and we wanted to get it right for them. It’s nice to have something in the trophy cabinet for the non-footballing side of things – we are proud of our National Clean Air Award. We have had positive feedback from staff and customers – there have been a few moans – but the vast majority of people are very supportive. We’ve found that a lot of people are reporting others for breaking the rules.”
This season’s efforts puts Forest at the top of the league for smoke-free venues, as well as being tops for food safety and hygiene as it scored a five-start rating at all of its eateries when inspected by councils environmental health officers.
Rose Melvin, health development officer at the Borough Council said: “ Forest’s positive action to protect their staff and the public from exposure to secondhand smoke and supporting smokers who want to quit meant they were nominated as our business champions for 2007. Forest deserve to receive ‘off the field’ recognition for their sterling efforts.”
The council’s health development officer, Rose Melvin, can offer help and advice to Nottingham based businesses wanting to go smoke-free. Contact Rose at:
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