Last updated at 16:53 19 June 2007

Smokers will be asked not to smoke in their own homes to protect council staff.

Health and safety officers at Liverpool City Council have drawn up plans asking residents not to smoke at least half an hour before council staff visit.

The plans also ask council house residents to open windows and not light up during a home visit to protect their employees from exposure to smoke.

The city council insist the new rules are not a "ban" and they will not be able to force householders to comply.

But if residents insist on smoking at home during a visit from a council employee the visit will be ended and they will be asked to attend a council office - which comes under the UK-wide no smoking ban from July 1.

The new rules will apply to all residents in council houses and private homes and to all staff visiting homes, including social workers, enforcement officers and planning officers.

A council committee will meet this week to discuss the proposals drawn up in a report by the Town Hall's Health and Safety Unit.

The report says: "In circumstances where staff are undertaking prearranged visits, service users will be requested to refrain from smoking in their own homes prior to and during the visit."

Risk assessment exercises will be carried out in cases where exposure to tobacco smoke cannot be prevented.

A spokesman for Liverpool City Council said: "We are not banning people from smoking in their own homes.

"All we are asking, and it is a reasonable request, is that people respect the views and the health of visiting council staff and ask them not to smoke while council staff are visiting in their own home.

"This is a reasonable way in which to deal with this.

"It is a request to residents and we, as an employer, have a legal duty to protect the interests and health of our staff and I am one million per cent confident the people of this city will respond in a positive manner to that.

"I don't think ban or instruction is necessary because it is common sense and people will support it."

The new rules come as one council defended its decision to investigate "odour nuisance" caused by a couple smoking in their own home.

Jeanette and Gavin Gordon-Crawley received a letter from their local council telling them officials were to probe their smoking habits following a complaint from a neighbour.

The couple, from Caernarfon, North Wales, received a letter from Gwynedd County Council saying a neighbour had complained about cigarette smoke "permeating into her living room" from the couple's semi-detached home.

Mr Gordon-Crawley, 51, who smokes 20 cigarettes a day, said he thought it was a joke at first and defended his right to smoke in his own home.

A spokeswoman for Gwynedd County Council said: "What people do within their own homes is of no concern to us, as long as they do not affect other people.

"In this instance we have received a complaint stating that smoking in a house in the Caernarfon area is causing a nuisance to the neighbours and as a local authority we have a statutory responsibility to investigate this complaint.

"Officers from the Council's Public Protection Service are investigating."