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Smoking ban is ruining us

Ailsa Cranna
3/ 7/2008

CUSTOM at one of Prestwich’s most popular pubs has been slashed as a result of the no smoking ban.

A year on from the ban coming into place, landlord Tom Gribben said trade has been massively affected.

The 52-year-old, who has run the Church Lane pub for 10 years, said: "I can’t tell you exactly by how much but it could be in the thousands - our Christmas bookings were down by 50 per cent.

"The crazy thing is it didn’t need to happen because we had always made strict provisions for smokers to use one room exclusively and not to smoke in the rest of the pub.

"That rule stood for almost 10 years and no-one had any problem with it.

"We were a family pub, a very popular local landmark and still are to a great extent, but I feel unnecessary difficulties have been placed in our way, making it very difficult to trade.

"For instance, because of conservation planning rules we cannot attach smoking shelters to the front of our pub.

"We are being told that our pub is a protected building but it seems all laws are conspiring to put it under threat."

His comments come in the wake of a positive response from health bosses over the ban.

This week they announced that an extra 2,000 people are believed to have quit cigarettes in Greater Manchester because of the smoking ban.

Peter Elton, director of public health for Bury, said: "More than 2,000 of the people who quit through our stop smoking series are because of the ban.

"The day they quit they start saving their lives."

Businesses that fail to prevent smoking can face fines of £2,500, and those caught smoking risk fixed penalty notices of £50.

Only a handful of customers and businesses have been punished during the first year of the smoking ban.

Across Greater Manchester only 114 people received spot-fines for lighting up and just three businesses were prosecuted.

No businesses in the borough of Bury were affected although one spot-fine was issued to a smoker.