YORK's biggest employer could soon close smoking rooms for its workers.

Bosses at City of York Council are considering a cigarette ban - and councillors will be asked to endorse the proposals in the next couple of weeks.

The move would mark a significant step forward in the Evening Press-backed campaign to eradicate smoking from workplaces across the area.

But while council officers are recommending that all authority buildings become smoke free, trade unions are resisting the proposals, and have indicated they would prefer existing policies to remain in place.

That is likely to cut little ice with councillors, who will be told the authority would be one of only two councils in the region that have no plans to go smoke-free.

The council, which employs 7,500 people, was invited by Selby and York PCT to become smoke-free on October 1, as part of the Yes to Clean Air campaign - a joint initiative between the Trust and the Evening Press aiming to banish smoking in York, Selby and Easingwold.

Today, campaign chiefs said they would be delighted if the council joined the growing fold of businesses opting to go smoke free.

Rachel Johns, the trust's director of public health, said: "We would encourage all organisations to look at going smoke-free.

"We would be really pleased if the council were able to join us. We are really pleased with the success of the campaign so far and the council would be another important building block." In a report to councillors attending a personnel meeting next Tuesday, human resources director Chris Tissiman wrote that it is "essential that the council has measures in place to protect its employees from the known risk caused by passive smoking".

He added: "In addition to offering improved protection against the dangers of passive smoking (ventilation removes the smell of tobacco smoke, but it does not eliminate all the cancer causing particles and gasses from the air), there are positive health benefits to smokers of moving to a smoke-free environment."

But both public service unions Unison and the GMB said they would rather the council did not bring in smoke-free status. They said they were concerned about the displacement of smokers into public areas.

Unison said it considered "the removal of designated smoking areas to be a 'draconian measure' and a 'punishment for smoker's addiction'". A City of York Council spokeswoman said: "The council has had a corporate 'Smoking at Work' policy for some time.

"This prevented employees from smoking in council offices, apart from in designated areas.

"We would like to move towards a smoke-free policy, where smoking would not be permitted anywhere in council offices and the immediate vicinity.

"In addition to offering improved protection against the dangers of passive smoking, research shows that smoke-free policies at work reduce the number of cigarettes smoked by each continuing smoker."

Updated: 11:09 Wednesday, August 31, 2005