230,000 illegal cigarettes and 64kg of tobacco seized in North Northamptonshire in past year in council bid to stop smoking and vaping

In North Northamptonshire, 14.6 per cent of the adult population smoke, rising to 21.8 per cent of routine and manual workers, higher than both regional and England averages.

At a national level, smoking remains the leading cause of death and ill-health in England.

A drive to increase the capacity of North Northants Council’s (NNC) 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.

Public health director Jane Bethea told a meeting of NNC’s health and wellbeing board last week: “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 and is at the core of a lot of the issues with ill health.”

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 Northants accessing stop smoking services set a quit date. Of them, 1,054 successfully quit at four weeks, a continued improvement on previous years.

Operation Stop, a public health-funded project delivered alongside Trading Standards and Northamptonshire Police, has also been put in place to disrupt the illegal supply and underage sales of tobacco and vapes through test purchases and enforcement action.

Over the past 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.

NNC’s public health team has said key objectives over the next 18 months will be to increase the number of residents supported to stop smoking, provide targeted support to address higher levels of smoking in Corby and the manual working trade, and prevent children and young people from starting smoking or vaping.

Another key focus of the health board is encouraging communities in ‘keeping active’ to reduce inequalities and improve health outcomes.

According to NNC data, 69 per cent of adults in North Northants were overweight or obese, alongside almost a quarter of children in reception and more than a third of children in Year 6.

Ms Bethea said that nationally there had been ‘huge spikes’ in the number of young people who are overweight or obese, which had been directly impacted by Covid.

Officers added that they were looking at how to employ a compassionate approach to weight in children to reduce stigma, as well as looking for opportunities to pilot new activities with physical activity, access to good food and green spaces.

Key achievements so far include investment in communities in Lodge Park, Kingswood and Queensway, putting on leisure programmes and well-being walks and major community engagement through fundays.