Fenland has the highest rate of smokers in the country with one in three people who can’t kick the habit compared to a national average of one in five, according to figures revealed this week.

he news comes as stop smoking services across Cambridgeshire report that their target of helping 3,600 people give up cigarettes fell way short at just 182 people.

The low figures may be due to people not using stop smoking services like Camquit because they are instead turning to e cigarettes - the stop smoking trend that is sweeping the country, according to a report discussed by the county audits and accounts committee.

Fenland smokers are due to be targeted with a wide range of plans including a mobile workplace service, a migrant worker health trainer post to target communities where smoking rates are high, a promotional campaign and recruitment of an additional stop smoking advisor in the area.

The report said stop smoking services had a 95% success rate in 2012/3 which dropped to 76% in 2013/4 and dropped further to 54% so far this year.

“This is reflected in the national trend that is attributed to the use of e cigarettes,” according to the report.

“Performance in GP practices was especially poor and there is an ongoing problem with recruiting smokers to make quit attempts,” the report adds.

“In addition there have been many changes in GP practices that have affected performance of all the public health GP services.

“There is an ongoing programme to improve performance with Camquit, the core service providing increasingly higher levels of support to the other providers along with promotional activities.

“There is considerable concern with the level of smoking in Fenland, where the latest prevalence figure being 29.5% compared to a county figure of 17.9% and a national figure of 19.5%,” says the report which has been prepared by chief finance officer Chris Malyon, for the county audit and accounts committee, discussed on Tuesday (23).

• Camquit is hitting the road to help smokers in Fenland go the extra mile and quit for good.

The launch of the new mobile service, being piloted for the first time, coincides with the national stop-smoking campaign, Stoptober.

Camquit advisors will be out and about in their mobile van in the following locations:

* Wisbech Car Boot on Friday September 26, October 3, October 10 and October 17.

* Wisbech Tesco on Wednesday October 1.

* Wisbech Layby near Weasenham Lane on Tuesday October 14

* March Tesco on Thursday October 2

* Chatteris CO-OP on Thursday October 16

* Workplace visits across Fenland

Claire Mead, CAMQUIT co-ordinator at Cambridgeshire County Council, said: “You’re up to five times more likely to succeed in quitting if you get help.”