Smoking is being banned in another town park in South East Cornwall.

Smokers are being told: “We don’t want to breathe your secondhand smoke!”

However, the ban carries no weight in law and Cornwall Council wants smokers to voluntarily observe the new measure.

School children have helped to design signs with the words: ‘Cigarettes are rubbish. Please don’t smoke in our play park’. 

Castle Park in Liskeard was being officially launched as a smokefree park this week. 

The open space is the latest park managed by the council to become a voluntary smokefree zone after similar launches in Torpoint, Bodmin, Launceston, Newquay Hayle and Illogan. 

The aim is to reduce the number of people smoking around children and raise awareness of the dangers of passive smoking. 

Assistant director of public health Dr Ruth Goldstein said:  “No child should have to breathe in secondhand smoke. 

“We know children exposed to smoking are significantly more likely to take up smoking themselves.”

When children breathe in second-hand smoke it can be especially harmful as they have less well-developed airways, lungs and immune systems compared to adults.  

Exposure to second-hand smoke has been linked to an increased risk of a range of illnesses including lower respiratory tract infections, asthma, wheezing, and middle ear infections. 

Cllr Dr Andy Virr, cabinet member for adults and public health, said the initiative builds on the work Healthy Cornwall has been doing with the Liskeard School and Community College this year and with primary schools in Liskeard, to tackle smoking and under-age vaping. 

He said: “I can’t overstate the impact that smoking can have on people’s health so the more we can do to stop children and young people taking up smoking the better.” 

Cllr Barbara Ellenbroek, cabinet member for children and families, said:  “It is one of our priorities at the council to make Cornwall a brilliant place to be a child and grow up and that includes creating safe, smokefree spaces for them to play and have fun.” 

Latest statistics by charity ASH show there are around 54,000 adult smokers in Cornwall who each spend more than £2,400 a year on the habit.