Smoking ban has 'devastated licensed trade' (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Smoking ban has 'devastated licensed trade'

8:53pm Wednesday 27th February 2008

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HEALTH Secretary Alan Johnson has denied claims - made by publicans and regulars at a Bacup pub - that the smoking ban has devastated the licensed trade in East Lancashire.

Rossendale MP Janet Anderson recently presented a petition to Parliament, backed by 93 customers at The Swan Hotel, in Market Street.

Locals said that the cigarettes purge had seen at least a third of the regular customers drift away from the Bacup alehouse.

The petition's backers - including smokers and non-smokers - claimed "the social atmosphere within the pub has drastically diminished".

Drinkers were "finding the ban has served no purpose whatsoever other than to nibble away at the social cohesion that has taken many years to evolve."

Mrs Anderson said the petition requested the House of Commons to introduce fresh legislation to allow the landlord of the Swan Hotel to put up a sign depicting it as a "smoking establishment, giving customers the right to choose whether to enter or not".

But health supremo Mr Johnson says the ban, introduced last July across England, has been "highly successful" and lauded by the health profession and beyond.

Mr Johnson added: "We have seen no significant evidence to suggest that smoke-free legislation either in this country, or in others where similar legislation has been in place for some years, will create any long-term economic problems for pubs or for the hospitality trade in general."

He has also told drinks industry magazine The Morning Advertiser that the smoke ban should not be blamed for an increase in the number of pub closures.

Mr Johnson added: "Evidence in fact suggests that it is likely to be prevailing economic, structural and cultural issues, rather than the introduction of smoke-free legislation, which will be primary cause of any significant decline in the pub sector."

Ministers will be presented with the results of a full review of the smoking ban - and its perceived impacts - in July 2010.

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