Anti-smoking drive sees illegal cigarettes seized

The number of smokers in north Northamptonshire is well above the national average

More than 230,000 illegal cigarettes and 64kg of tobacco have been seized as part of a drive to reduce smoking and vaping.

Operation Stop, a Public Health England-funded project delivered in collaboration with Trading Standards and Northamptonshire Police, has targeted underage sales of tobacco and vapes through test purchases and enforcement action.

North Northamptonshire Council said that about 14.6% of its adult population smoke, rising to 21.8% of routine and manual workers - higher than the national averages of 11.9% and 20.2% respectively.

The Reform UK-controlled council's public health director, Jane Bethea, said smoking was "at the core of a lot of the issues with ill health".

Speaking at a meeting of the council's health and wellbeing board, she said: "[In] communities where smoking is at its highest, it is very difficult to really break in sometimes to those communities to talk about smoking.

"So when we talk in Corby, for example, and we talk about the high rates of some ill health in Corby, the conversation doesn't always come straight to smoking, when we know that actually smoking prevalence is so high."

On a national level, smoking remains the leading cause of death and ill health in England, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

North Northamptonshire Council's health and wellbeing board set out its targets for the next 18 months in a meeting at the Corby Cube

It comes as a drive to increase the capacity of the council's stop smoking team has seen wait times from referral to first appointment reduce from eight weeks to one to two weeks, as well as creating new clinics in areas with higher smoking levels.

A Corby-specific project, which has focused on gathering insight on the attitudes to smoking within the town has also taken place, with a final report expected to be released soon.

In 2024-25, 1,625 adults across north Northamptonshire who accessed stop smoking services set a quit date. Of those, 1,054 successfully quit at four weeks, a continued improvement on previous years.

Over the last year, the project has resulted in the seizure of 230,591 illegal cigarettes, 64.6kg of illegal hand-rolling tobacco, and 11,702 illegal disposable vaping devices.

The council's public health team said its key objectives for the next 18 months would be to increase the number of residents supported to stop smoking, to address higher levels of smoking in Corby and the manual working trade and to prevent children and young people from starting smoking or vaping.