The ban on smoking in public places is set to be extended to parks and cars.
It emerged on Sunday that local councils are planning to use new laws to create “zero-tolerance” zones similar to those in some parts of America.
It would be the first time smoking outdoors has been banned in Britain.
Smokers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been outlawed from lighting up in indoor public places since 2007, and in Scotland since 2006.
The sight of people puffing cigarettes outside office buildings and pubs, and in public parks, has become commonplace.
Now, under the Government's Localism Bill, designed to shift power to communities and councils, the ban will be extended in areas where residents want it. Councils and NHS trusts are targeting places such as play parks to make “smoking history for our children”.
Some councils, including Warrington in Cheshire and Stony Stratford, near Milton Keynes, are planning to outlaw smoking in cars carrying children.
Stony Stratford councillor Paul Bartlett said the campaign had the support of senior members of the town council, but would need the approval of Milton Keynes Council.
Bartlett, 50, is also pushing for a new by-law to outlaw smoking in any open place or public street in Stony Stratford.
The proposal comes after the mayor of New York banned smoking from parks and beaches in the city earlier this year. Bill Wearing, head of health and wellbeing at Cumbria Council, another authority considering a ban, said: “No one wants to see anyone smoking near children’s play areas. It is getting to a stage where people think it is socially unacceptable in parks.
“Once it becomes socially unacceptable, it becomes a lot easier to bring in laws.”
In spite of the ban, one in three people in some areas of the country still smoke.
Andrea Crossfield of Smokefree North West said she was helping local councils to use legislation to introduce enforceable bans.
In the South-West, there are already “voluntary” smoking bans in some children’s parks.
A spokesman for Forest, the smokers’ lobby group, said: “It is a completely unnecessary intrusion into people’s lives.” - Daily Mail