PREVENTION is always better than cure, they say. That is certainly the case when it comes to trying to raise the overall health of the population in a city like York.

Every pound spent on stopping people getting ill in the first place is likely to save many pounds in future on having to treat them. And as well as saving the public purse money, it would mean we were all living healthier, happier lives.

It isn’t difficult to help people live more healthily. It requires educational programmes, simple advice about healthy eating and exercise, opportunities to go out and get that exercise - and, where necessary, help to give up unhealthy habits.

That’s why we were so angry last week when it emerged that the number of people in York getting help to quit smoking plummeted by more than 90 per cent in a single year after the city council took over responsibility for the Stop Smoking Service from the NHS and slashed the budget.

It is hard to think of a worse, more short-termist way of trying to save money. It was yet another example of two public services working against each other. The council may have saved a bit of money - but in the long run it will cost the health service far more.

Worryingly, the strategy announced by the council’s health and wellbeing board today seems to promise more of the same. The talk is all about financial constraints and the need to make ‘radical changes’ to healthy living programmes so that people take responsibility for their own health.

That is fine, provided they get the support they need to do so. The worry is that the number of people being helped to lead healthier lives will plummet the way the number of people being helped to stop smoking did.