I FEEL I must respond to Mr Hill's letter (November 26) about providing smokers with designated areas so that they can indulge in their insensitive habit.

Such amateurish demarcation will not cure the problem. Smoking is an addiction; addiction is a disease; and disease spreads.

Surely if you have a group of smokers herded into one section of a pub, even a hi-tech extractor fan is not going to get rid of all the toxic smoke and nicotine polluting the atmosphere. The sensible solution is surely to have smoking and non-smoking pubs.

I further disagree with Mr Hill using that old chestnut democracy as his trump card. Even he admits passive smoking is harmful and, lets face it, no-one is stopping him from smoking in his own home!

PAUL WRIGHT