Smoke-free sporting venues in Borough of Scarborough
Sports groups and organisations in Scarborough, Filey and Whitby are joining up to try and make venues healthier
A number of local sports groups and organisations in the Borough of Scarborough have joined forces to try and create smoke free environments for people to enjoy participating and spectating at local sport.
Matt Hewison, Scarborough Borough Council’s Sports Development Manager, said:
"We have been working with the team at North Yorkshire Health, the North Riding County FA and North Yorkshire Sport for a number of years now on the Smoke Free Clubs initiative, and we have some good working examples of how clubs have adopted their own strategies to create a smoke free environment; including Scarborough Rugby Union FC.
"We wanted to target certain facilities and leagues to work with, so it has been excellent working with Everyone Active, Scarborough Athletic FC, Scarborough Ladies FC and the Scarborough & District Minor League on how we can both educate and implement smoke free messaging for participants, coaches and spectators in a football environment.
"This work will hopefully not only improve community wellbeing but also retain more people in active participation."
Two successful applications were made to the North Yorkshire County Council Smoke Free Places Grant that will enable signage and educational messaging to be situated at facilities and be distributed to local schools to embed the message of creating a healthy smoke free environment to play sport.
Jon Bird, Everyone Active’s General Manager, said: “At Everyone Active, our mission is to look after the health and wellbeing of the communities we serve.
“We want Scarborough Sports Village to continue to provide a safe environment for activity and are therefore delighted to be supporting the Smokefree Sidelines initiative.
“It is important to ensure we help to keep children and adults from all backgrounds as healthy as possible, while we deliver such a diverse range of activities at Scarborough Sports Village.”
Donna Crowthers, Football Development Officer at the North Riding County FA, said:
"North Riding County FA are very proud and pleased to support the work of both the Scarborough & District Minor League, Scarborough Athletic FC, Scarborough Ladies FC and Scarborough Borough Council around the Smokefree Sidelines initiative. Having Smokefree Sidelines in place at facilities is a positive step forward in promoting a healthy lifestyle to all our grassroots community and will hopefully have an impact on players staying in the game for a long period of time.
"The message is clear and simple let’s give the next generation a breath of fresh air by keeping our pitches and sidelines smoke free."
Steve Matthews, Chair of the Scarborough & District Minor League, said:
"As a League we took the proactive decision with our member clubs to unanimously implement Smoke Free Sidelines at all our games, with support from Scarborough Borough Council and the North Riding County FA.
"We were aware of some situations where young players were having to play football whilst running through clouds of cigarette smoke, and that is not the healthy environment any of us want to promote for our young players.
"As a league we are delighted to receive a Smokefree Places Grant that will help us provide each of our member clubs with an educational banner to promote the initiative, along with branding for social media posts."
Owen Willis, Chair of Scarborough Ladies FC, said:
"Everyone associated with the club is delighted to be involved in the Smoke Free Sidelines initiative, as we have experienced a negative experience in the past with other users smoking at our sessions. We are keen to actively promote and support anything which promotes the health and wellbeing of not only sportsmen and women, but also the wider community".
Trevor Bull, Chair of Scarborough Athletic FC said:
"As a community club we have a diverse age range of supporters and this initiative provides us with the opportunity to help them all with their wellbeing.
"I’m aware that Harrogate Town FC introduced this initiative a few seasons ago and despite some initial resistance to change, it’s now welcomed and appreciated by both home and away supporters.
"Our young supporters are the future of our club and anything that we can proactively do to improve the match day experience for all our supporters can only benefit us as a club."
Cllr Andrew Lee, North Yorkshire’s Executive Member for Public Health, said:
"North Yorkshire County Council is committed to supporting the creation of more smoke free places in its local communities. This is essential to help de-normalise smoking especially with our younger generation and make it less likely that will adopt the habit."
For more details on the Smoke Free Club initiative please visit https://www.northyorkshiresport.co.uk/smokefree-clubs and for assistance with smoking cessation please visit https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/stopping-smoking