SMOKERS in Bournemouth have one of the lowest rates of successfully quitting in England.

Only about one-third (35 per cent) of smokers living in the town who pledged to give up smoking managed to do so.

NHS figures rank Bournemouth as having the 10th lowest rate of people successfully quitting smoking of English local authority areas.

The rate was slightly higher in the Dorset County Council area at 38 per cent with Poole at 47 per cent.

However, all three were below the national average of 51 per cent.

Smoking services in the county are managed by Public Health Dorset with support for people looking to quit provided by LiveWell Dorset.

Jane Horne, Public Health Dorset consultant in public health, said: “Although smoking rates are lower across Dorset than the national average, we take this issue very seriously.

That’s why we offer a range of support for people trying to give up smoking, through a variety of different routes: GPs, local pharmacies and our own dedicated health improvement service LiveWell Dorset.

“As well as offering nicotine replacement therapy and prescribed medications, we encourage people to explore a range of options including e-cigarettes.

“We offer brief advice and interventions as well as 1:1 behaviour change support, which helps people unpick why they might be struggling to quit smoking and supports them in developing strategies to overcome any barriers to change.

“We continually monitor the performance and design of our services in light of the latest data and evidence to make sure they’re accessible and effective for everyone who needs support.”

The annual report of NHS stop smoking services and shows the number of people who, using NHS services, have pledged to quit and the percentage of those who managed to do so.

Nationally, 274,000 used NHS services between April 2017 and March this year with more than 138,000 managing to stop smoking.

The number of people setting a target date for quitting smoking fell 11 per cent from 2016/17 with the increase in use of e-cigarettes thought to be partly responsible.

Responding to the report, Cllr Izzi Seccombe, chairman of the Local Government Association’s community wellbeing board, said: “Councils remain committed to helping smokers quit and spend almost £100 million each year on these services and wider tobacco control.

“However, this is increasingly challenging due to central government reductions to the public health budget which is used to fund stop smoking cessation services and which will only compound acute pressures for NHS services further down the line.”

The local authority with the lowest rate of smokers quitting is Cumbria at 24 per cent with the highest level reported in Staffordshire with 88 per cent of people successfully giving up.

Last year, the government announced plans to cut smoking rates in England from 15.5 per cent to below 12 per cent by the end of 2022 through its tobacco control plan.