Smoking is to be banned in the whole of Bradford's Ice Arena as part of a campaign to clear the air in the city's public buildings.

From next Saturday, the groups of teenagers who regularly smoke in the cafe and other spectator areas will no longer be allowed to light up anywhere in the arena.

The rink's management has taken the decision to stop all smoking at the venue and improve the air quality to attract more families.

The ban has been triggered by the Telegraph & Argus's Clear The Air campaign which is aiming to stop smoking in enclosed public places and help to cut death rates from cigarette-related illness.

The T&A campaign was launched after it was revealed that one in three deaths of people aged over 35 in Bradford were smoking related.

Health workers are also concerned about the growing number of teenage smokers after research at Leeds University revealed that by the age of sixteen, 31 percent of girls and 16 percent of boys were regular smokers.

Ice Arena general manager Angela Green said the company wanted to play its part in discouraging teenagers from starting smoking.

She said: "If teenagers start smoking at this age then it becomes second nature.

"At the moment we tell anyone who looks under 16 to put out the cigarettes, but it is very difficult to police.

"We feel the fewer places they have to smoke should help them not to.

"We are very impressed with the T&A's Clear The Air campaign and wanted to be part of it."

She said smoking was already banned on the rink itself but was allowed in the changing rooms and in the spectator areas.

Until recently it had been allowed in the stairwell but this has already been banned due to the high levels of smoke affecting queueing customers.

She said they had wanted to bring in the ban on April 1 - but feared no-one would take it seriously.

Mrs Green, from Bankfoot, a trying-to-stop smoker herself, said: "The smoke on the stairwells was affecting the queues and we took a decision to ban it there.

"We also feel this decision will deprive young people of somewhere to smoke and we think we should make a stand and say no to smoking."

She said customers at the arena as young as 13 and 14 had been seen smoking and added: "Many of their parents do not know they smoke, so if the only place left to them is at home, then it may help them to stop."

She said smoke levels inside the arena could get quite high even though it was a spacious, wellventilated building.

She said: "It can get very, very smoky and unpleasant."

Staff had welcomed the decision and she believed that in three years' time smoking would be the subject of an all-out ban nationwide.

She said: "In three years, in my opinion, it will be like Ireland and other countries abroad.

"Smoking is becoming less and less popular and there are more and more complaints about it."

She said they expected some customers to have an angry response but believed most people would welcome the decision.

Krystyna Rogers, a director of Nicetime, which owns the rink, said after a few failed bids to ban smoking the staff and directors were this time "100 per cent determined" it would succeed.

She said: "It is not acceptable healthwise.

"Children are easily influenced especially by what other children are doing." She said staff had caught children as young as ten with cigarettes.

"Children see the naughty ones up to something and think it must be good. It is setting a bad example."

Jane Thompson, assistant head of Bradford District Health development Partnership, said: "It is a really good move and a good move for Bradford to have this ban in an enclosed space where the majority are young people.

"It is always a difficult issue when we look at how to encourage children not to smoke.

"One way is to create smoke-free areas as the norm, so young people are not operating in smoky environments."