City councillors in Oxford have rejected calls to help council tenants kick the habit ahead of the smoking ban which comes into force on July 1.

The council's health scrutiny committee had called for information about smoking cessation services to be sent to all council homes.

But the authority's executive board rejected the idea and deputy leader David Rundle said it was not the council's place to pry into its tenants' business.

Mr Rundle said: "As a landlord we have a duty of care but we have not got the right to pry.

"We are interested in people's health. Why single out council tenants?"

But health scrutiny committee member Susanna Pressel said the idea was not aimed at telling people to quit. She said: "We are simply telling telling people there is help if you want to give up."

Mrs Pressel said Oxfordshire NHS Primary Care Trust had offered to supply the leaflets which contained smoking cessation service information.

She added: "All we want is for the council to put these leaflets in when they send out mailings which they do from time to time. I think we need to catch people on or before the ban starts.

"This is the moment when people are thinking about giving up."

Mrs Pressel said the idea was not aimed at singling out council tenants.

But she said areas of council housing did coincide with areas of deprivation that were targeted by health authorities