NON-SMOKERS have been banned from sitting outside a town centre cafe as smokers hit back in the war over lighting up in public.

The move came as smokers hit back in the war over lighting up in public.

The owners of CJ's Cafe and Milkbar in Darwen have launched their protest because smokers cannot puff away indoors since the nationwide ban began on July 1.

Jacqueline Hartley-Barnes and Christine Hartley-Pickup ask non-smokers to take a seat inside the Duckworth Street cafe and request that they leave the premises if they refuse.

The 58-year-old twin sisters, who have been smoking for 45 years, have even put up a sign explaining that the rules have been introduced because they disagree with the ban.

Pro-smoking organisation Forest said it could understand why the sisters had taken a stand but disagreed with their efforts.

A spokesperson for anti-smoking campaign group ASH urged non-smokers to boycott the cafe.

Christine said: "They have got their no smoking law, this is our little bit of a protest.

"We said we'll abide by the law, we are keeping them segregated.

"We have had two complaints but we are not bothered whether they come or whether they go because we are always full.

"I have even had a non-smoker buy a packet of fags and put them in front of them so they could sit outside. I said you don't smoke' and he said I like the food' but I said I don't care, you have to sit inside'."

But a 29-year-old Darwen mum who went to CJ's with her sister and three children said it was unfair they could not sit outside.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said: "It was really sunny so we wanted to sit outside and eat and we had too much stuff with the two prams for us to be able to go inside.

"We weren't stopping anyone else from sitting down, there were plenty of other seats, but she said we had to move.

"We got up and left. The cafe lost paying customers for no good reason. It was ridiculous and not very good business sense."

But Christine said their rule protected the children and said she and her sister didn't care if non-smokers went elsewhere as 90 per cent of their customers were smokers.

She said: "Do they want their children in a smoking environment? If I served them and sat down and started smoking in front of the kids what would they do?

"If there are tables free it still doesn't matter because if a smoker comes past and there are none free they'll go right past. I'm not bothered if they go somewhere else - we are just trying to accommodate everyone."

Jacqueline said their stand also safeguarded the health of non-smokers: "The government made this an issue for health reasons so if you have got a non-smoker sat outside and there's smokers sat outside surrounding them that's no good," she said.

"Most of them don't object to moving - they realise this is a law which shouldn't have come in."