(Finally, a story on this page to make you smile.)

The minister behind the smoking ban has been forced to move office because of the number of smokers congregating outside her window.

Caroline Flint, health minister when the smoking ban came into force and now welfare minister, said the smell of smoke coming through her window was “overpowering”, according to the Mail on Sunday.

Her husband and office manager Phil Cole told the paper: “There was some kind of ventilation system that we could not close off, so even with the windows closed the smoke kept coming in.”

Flint has asked for a review of the four designated outdoor smoking areas in the courtyard of the Palace of Westminster.

The number of pints served in Britain’s pubs and bars in the run-up to the busy festive period declined by almost 10% as chilly smokers, no longer allowed a cigarette inside a pub, cut short their drinking time or stayed at home.

Pub bosses expected the ban to hit hardest in winter but the November decline is by far the steepest since the restrictions were extended from Scotland into Wales and England last year. UK beer sales in August, the second month of the nationwide ban, were down just 2.5%.

The November figures followed falls of 8.2% and 7.7% for September and October respectively and appeared to hit every type of beer. “All categories fell – there was nowhere to hide,” said Mark Brumby, an analyst at Blue Oar Securities. “Premium ale was down 6.9%, standard ale 9.6%, standard lager 10.4%, premium lager 8.3% and stout 10.6%.”

Source: The Guardian. Link

Since the ban on smoking came into force in England in July, councillors, pub landlords and environmental campaigners said that the litter problem had increased sharply in East Lancashire.

It is said to be particularly on Saturday and Sunday mornings after the weekend nights out, when streets outside pubs are littered with discarded cigarettes.

But it is not just the night-time economy that is affected – the outsides of many offices and workplaces have similar piles of fag ends.

Mr Southam said: “Unfortunately it’s one of these things that the Government dictate to the country without thinking about the consequences on everybody.”

Source: This Is Lancashire. Link

The smoking ban is proving to deter new bingo players and leading to a decline in bingo players visiting bingo halls. According to research done by the St Minver bingo network the ban is having a surprisingly extreme affect on attendance. According to statistics from Leigh Nissim, managing director, one in three less bingo players are going to be present at halls and a staggering 63 percent are playing online and avoiding being in physical spaces where they cannot play bingo and smoke accordingly. Although the smoke free bingo halls will be of interest to some, the general affect of the ban is one that is thoroughly discouraging many players from leaving their homes, because of the removal of this small luxury. According to Nissim, it seems to him that land based bingo clubs are most likely to suffer in the wake of the smoking ban. Not only do players disagree with the ban, but they are less likely to visit clubs as a result. Openly admitting the ban has been good for a small percentage, the general consensus is that the ban has been more detrimental than positive.

Source: Bingo Player Online. Link

A ban on smoking has cut sales in bars and pubs, according to new sector survey. The Association of Travel and Restaurant Services says that income for pubs has dropped more than predicted.

There is also a transition period of two years for bars and restaurants that have arranged the smoking areas so that tobacco smoke does not spread to smoke-free areas.

Restaurants that successfully applied for a transitional period to full no-smoking status were found to have actually increased net sales. Bars that have built the special smoking rooms have seen income fall just like those where smoking is totally banned.

In the survey, 15% of establishments said that they have cut back on staff because of the drop in sales.

(In other words, bars that still allow smoking are seeing increased sales.)

Source: Yle.fi Link

Licensees in South Devon have blamed the smoking ban for an increase in rowdy behaviour and noise.

“There have been more fights and problems since the ban than in the last eight years,” Kelly Townsend of the Old Coaching House told the Herald Express.

“In the last six months we have had to call the police three or four times and we have had to break up a lot of fights. It happens at least once a week and all the trouble starts out the back in the smoking area.

He added: “Because all smokers now have to share the same area to smoke in, we are seeing higher levels of aggression from groups of people who would not normally have anything to do with each other, but now have to sit together for a smoke.”

Source: Morning Advertiser. Link

The main reason the ban has been bad for the environment is because of pubs’ and bars’ efforts to make smokers more comfortable when they head outside to light up. There has been a significant increase in the number of patio heaters in bars, pubs, and restaurants throughout the UK.

Because of the UK’s generally cold weather, the patio heaters are used an average of 237 days a year. This is the amount of time the temperature is below 15 degrees Celsius.
Environmental groups predict that pub and restaurant patio heaters will produce around 282,000 tons of emissions per year now. That’s a 260,000 ton increase over pre-ban numbers.

Some groups are calling for the patio heaters themselves to be banned in an effort to fight the negative environmental impact they have.

(Congratulations to them for not using the phrase “Global Warming” in this article.)

Source: environmentalgraffiti.com

I AM a professional musician of some 30 years, playing in bars and clubs, and have been dismayed by the effect of the smoking ban. Whereas we were promised that the grateful customers would flock to premises providing a smoke-free environment, the reality has been that I have been playing in mostly empty bars, while the few customers left have been shivering outside in the rain and cold.

I have never seen such a collapse in trade, which happened immediately after the ban and has not improved since. This ill thought out law has destroyed social life in this country at a stoke, as people decide to stay at home, guzzling cheap supermarket alcohol and no doubt smoking in front of their children. I have no problem with restrictions on smoking in shops and other public places, but a total ban in pubs, forcing people to sit outside in the wet and freezing cold, while being denied adequate shelter is surely unreasonable.

Most people I know are upset and angry about this ban, and if it is not reversed it will lead to the demise of many premises which have previously been the hub of the community.

Source: Gazette, Internet Edition. Link

Beer sales in pubs are down 22 per cent because of the smoking ban say the British Beer and Pub Association.

The Labour manifesto promised smoking pubs and non-smoking pubs but after the election they changed their minds and chose to ban smoking almost everywhere.

Some village pubs are saying that sales are down by 50 per cent which means they cannot continue in business.

A bingo hall has been forced to close after 37 years in business.

The Bingorama club in King Street, Belper, closed its doors for the last time on Tuesday.
The club’s operator, Stylus Sports, said that current pressures facing the bingo industry, such as high taxation and the smoking ban, made Bingorama economically unviable.
Managing director Peter Hargreaves said: “I have worked in the bingo industry for nearly 30 years and the current climate is the most difficult I can recall.

“If the Government continues failing to address the inequality of trading position that bingo clubs currently face, many local communities will see a familiar social facility disappear from their towns for good.

“It is with much regret and sadness that we have been forced to close Bingorama with the resulting loss of jobs and social facilities for local residents.

“I should like to thank all our staff and customers for their support over the years.”

Source: Evening Telegraph. Link

Pubs across the country are facing legal showdowns with councils over issues arising from the smoking ban.

Following The Publican’s exclusive story last week on Chelmsford licensee Jeff Castledine, more licensees have come forward telling of their harsh treatment from their local authorities.

Noise from smokers outside pubs is the main issue causing licensees headaches.

The letter sent to Ashley states: “As the interview will be tape recorded in accordance with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 you may bring a legal representative/solicitor with you. The maximum penalty for breaching license conditions is £20,000 and or 6 months imprisonment.”

Another licensee, who wished to remain anonymous, has been sent a letter by his council saying it is “monitoring the situation” over noise outside his pub.

He said he is facing a “catch-22” over what do to with his outdoor area. “I’m being challenged to put in heaters outside, but I’m loath to make the area more comfortable because there is more chance of noise,” he said.

Source: The Publican. Link

HUNDREDS of bingo players have been left without their local hall because of the smoking ban.

Despite New Century Bingo in Woolston, Southampton, having more than 4,500 members on their books and seeing some 1,500 regulars every week, bosses at the venue say it cannot carry on with people heading outside to smoke or staying at home to play online games on the internet.

Paul Redwood, acting manager of New Century Bingo in Shirley said: “Unfortunately the smoking ban is affecting bingo halls around the country. Many independent places have closed or are closing.”

Source: Daily Echo. Link

One in three bingo halls are facing closure because of the smoking ban.

About 600,000 customers have stayed away – a 20 per cent drop in attendance figures – since the July 1 ban in England. Industry experts believe around 200 of the country’s 634 bingo clubs will have to shut – on top of 60 closures in the last year.

They warned the threatened closures would hit hundreds of communities. Bingo Association’s Paul Talboys said: “The fabric of whole neighbourhoods will change.”

Source: Sunday Mirror.  Link

The UK’s casinos and bingo halls are suffering the fallout from the recently imposed indoor smoking ban. Profits are falling and share prices are sinking dismally.

The new law, introduced in July, which means smokers must go outside if they want to light up, causes gamblers to spend less time at the table and more time hanging around outside. Casinos and bingo halls are investing in outdoor areas, in a bid to keep their customers warm, happy and spending. Having to adapt, some bingo bosses have suggested ‘bingo gardens’ where patrons can continue to play outside whilst indulging in a cigarette. However, unpredictable English weather is likely to put paid to this idea.

Analysts say that smokers spend on average 10% of their playing time on cigarette breaks, and aside from the time lost, once they have left the table, they are less likely to return, after mulling over their losses. Whereas players used to use the slot machines in the breaks, they are now more likely to head outside for a smoke.

In the summer, Gala, Britain’s biggest bingo network, forecast the closure of around 7% of its 170 clubs, due to the predicted impact of the smoking ban. In September, Mecca Bingo announced it was cutting 200 jobs as it struggled to cope with falling profits.

Source: Casino Times. Link

The Rank Group, the owners of Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casinos, has reported a 19% decline in its like-for-like revenues and blames the fall on the smoking ban and on the law’s effects on gaming terminals.

Link

We knew the pub would be in trouble when the smoking ban came in. As the cold spring wore on and the regulars huddled round the log fire in the front bar, Anne, the landlady, kept saying: “It’ll ruin me.”

Now it’s empty. The front bar is almost never used. Regulars lurk near the “smoking door” and the Sunday lunchers sit in the garden – unless it rains, which it’s been doing since July 1. Where are the non-smokers?

Anne: “To be honest, I don’t think non-smokers are pub-goers.”

Anne, whose takings have fallen by half since July 1, cannot afford to exploit her outdoor opportunity with solutions (decking, marquees, outside audio-visuals). It’s a rural local, for heaven’s sake.

Anne is not renewing her lease when it comes up next year. Is it the smoking ban? “That’s part of it. Anybody driving past looks in the front bar and probably thinks we’re closed. I reckon we’ve lost 25 grand this year. Cold, wet summer as much as the smoking ban.

The lease is up on February 18. On the 19th, the pub will close. Me, I don’t think Enterprise – or anybody else – will reopen it. This is not gastro-pub country. We’re bereft.

(These are excerpts from a long article that really captures the feel of what the UK is losing. We recommend reading the entire article.)

Source: The Telegraph. Link

Whitby mental health patients forced offsite, leading neighbours to complain about loitering

He’s 53, with sad eyes and not much to look forward to. One of his few pleasures in life is a coffee and cigarette.

But the Whitby Mental Health Centre, his home for the past 10 years, wants to deny him that in the interests of “recovering best health.”

Translation: no smoking anywhere in the hospital or its 32-hectare waterfront property.

“It’s very, very frustrating,” he says, cigarette in one hand, foam cup in the other, in a small, town-owned parking lot a five-minute walk away.

“They’re telling me to quit. I don’t want to. I’ve been smoking for 40 years.”

He says he makes the long walk across the grounds 20 to 30 times a day. “I’ve got nowhere else to go.”

The smoking ban, implemented last June, has raised the ire of area residents and the Whitby Yacht Club, whose driveway runs past the parking lot where patients and staff congregate.

They complain of litter, butts and public urination. Some are intimidated by the “crazies,” as one sailor described patients.

“It’s a little bit threatening when it’s a whole load of people loitering around out there,” says the club’s vice-commodore Jim McMaster, adding they have concerns over fire risks and their boats’ security.

“Something has to be done. I understand … that they don’t want people smoking but you don’t force them off your property and onto someone else’s because you can’t figure out how to deal with them.”

The ban, imposed on the hospital’s 330 in-patients, 1,000 staff members, outpatients and visitors, is part of their mission to help patients become healthy and reintegrate into the community, says president and CEO Glenna Raymond. She adds statistics are “staggering” for smoking-related illnesses in the mental health sector.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Raymond says of the no-smoking policy, put in place after months of study.

“But it was the right move to make.”

(Yeah, why should your mentally ill patients be allowed any comforts that aren’t politically correct?)

An “unintended consequence” was the stigma around mental illness that’s surfaced in the community, Raymond says. Patients may not be ready for independent living but they pose no threat and “there’s no reason to confine them.” They have as much right to smoke in the community as anyone, she says.

That stance angers Whitby Councillor Elizabeth Roy and the “numerous” residents who have complained about encounters with patients near their homes, in a park and along a waterfront trail. Their quarrel is with the facility, not its occupants, she says.

“The fault goes back to the hospital, which is pushing patients and staff away from the facility into the community,” says Roy. “The solution is to give them a designated area” as other health facilities do.

That won’t happen, says Raymond. While the hospital is “committed to being a good neighbour,” a smoking shelter would run “contradictory to the aims of the policy.”

(Her policy of being a sanctimonious nanny, no doubt.)

But one patient says it’s difficult to concentrate in his group therapy when he’s worrying about when he’ll get his next cigarette.

Then there’s the problem of the cigarettes themselves. “They’re confiscated if we have them in the hospital. We’re supposed to hide them outside, off the property.”

It all combines to make a difficult life that much more trying, says a heavy smoker.
“We just want to have a cigarette.”

(Does this strike anyone else as just being nasty for the sheer joy of it? Evidently Glenna Raymond, needs to feed her power trip on the backs of the mentally ill patients she’s supposed to care for, but obviously doesn’t care about.)

Source: The Star.com.  Link

Smokers are staying away from bingo halls in their droves.

BINGO halls across South Wales are feeling the drag of a major profit slump six months into the smoking ban.

And managers are bracing themselves for more dwindling revenue when the colder weather soon kicks in.

The serious profit slide has been caused by smokers avoiding the big cash-generating games to catch up on a quick puff outside the buildings.

The numerous bingo halls the Echo contacted all reported a drop of between 15 to 20 per cent in revenue and workingmen’s clubs and associations where a pint and a fag go hand in hand have also said the same.

The study revealed 62 per cent of bingo players are smokers and that 33 per cent of them will play less often while 21 per cent will stop playing in clubs altogether.

Link

The pub trade in Telford has been virtually destroyed since the introduction of the nationwide smoking ban in July, licensees claim.

The crisis in Telford is reflected nationally, with the pub trade claimed to be in meltdown as one in five tenants declare their intention to quit.

“I went to five pubs in Dawley and they would normally have been packed with people enjoying a drink and a smoke,” he said. “Three pubs had just two people in the bar, one had four in and the other had six in.”

Link

Since the smoking ban came into force on July the 1st, smokers are spending over 20 extra hours outside each month so putting themselves at greater risk of skin damage.

Research from Boots shows that an alarming 60% of British sunburn cases occur on home turf, a figure set to rise with the smoking ban taking more people outdoors.

To help prevent the Smoker’s Burn phenomena, the UK’s leading health and beauty retailer has teamed up with the Laurel Pub Company to offer £300,000 worth of free sun cream to punters across the UK.

Since the smoking ban came into force on July the 1st, smokers are spending over 20 extra hours outside each month so putting themselves at greater risk of skin damage.

Research from Boots shows that an alarming 60% of British sunburn cases occur on home turf, a figure set to rise with the smoking ban taking more people outdoors.

(I consider this a very silly story, and published it here just for fun. It does, however, show how nannies of all flavors freak out at the tiniest increase in any risk.)

Source: GMTV. Link

Berlin – A smoking ban that began Saturday on trains operated by Germany’s main railway company, Deutsche Bahn, may trigger a crisis, with toilets constantly occupied by surreptitious smokers, a passenger lobby warned Saturday.

“Heavy smokers will head for the toilets,” he said in an interview. “That is what happened when the smoking cars were abolished (on July 1) on regional trains. You have to accept that. It’s a fact whether you like it or not.”

Naumann predicted that about half the people who have used railway smoking cars to date would stop traveling by rail and go by road.

Link

DISGRUNTLED pub landlords in Nuneaton are set to challenge the government over the new smoking laws.

They say the smoking ban is doing more harm than good – and is threatening Britain’s pub culture.

He said: “It is causing a mass of problems – noise, mess, glass and bottles on the street, crowds of people drinking outside pubs rather than inside, and many other issues.”He said: “Noise is a big problem, because the doors are onstantly open there’s noise from inside and outside the pub.

Mess on the streets is another problem.

Mr Burlingham said: “At least inside the pub you can keep emptying ashtrays to keep the place clean.

“When you go outside at the end of the night, it looks like all the ashtrays have been emptied in one place.”

He said pub landlords feel the ban is changing the British way of life.

“Where pubs have created designated smoking areas, people are being herded into one place to smoke – but non-smokers are joining them, leaving the pubs half empty.

“Like it or not, Britain has a pub culture.

Source: Coventry Telegraph. Link

The smoking ban has already produced some surprising consequences. Take smells. Tobacco smoke may have been unpleasant but it masked a myriad odours. Since the ban, hundreds of pubs have been forced to steam-clean carpets stiff with years of beer spillage and other deposits. Nightclubs are now pumping perfume into their air-conditioning systems to mask the body odour given off by dancers.

There is a topsy-turvy feeling to many British pubs today, with scores of people crowding outside while bar rooms lie empty – even in cool weather.

In Ireland, which pioneered the smoking ban, the effects were far worse. Hundreds of pubs closed, particularly in rural areas.

Some pubs have gone already. Deejay Royall spent thousands of pounds transforming the interior of The Bush, in Wigan. He decided to pre-empt the ban and steal a march on rivals by prohibiting smoking from February. The result was a catastrophic fall in customers.

“People started to go to other pubs that hadn’t introduced the smoking ban, and then, when it came in last month, they stopped going out altogether. They are staying at home, buying cheap booze from the supermarkets and sitting in with their friends, smoking their heads off.”

Paul Jones, the landlord of the New Inn in Lower Cwmtwrch, in south Wales is another victim. “I’ve sold my lease because I can’t continue,” he laments. “About 40 per cent of our trade was cut by the smoking ban.”

Unless smoking in the open air is banned, Britain had better get used to night-time crowds. Terry Archer, the manager of the Lamb and Flag in London’s Covent Garden, has no option but to let his customers drink on the street.

Source: Tellegraph UK. Link

SMOKERS who are forced to pop outside pubs for a puff because of the smoking ban could be breaking street drinking laws, it has been claimed.

The new ban has also created a nuisance for people living near town centre pubs, who have complained about groups of smokers congregating on the streets.

People living in the town’s historic core said their lives had been blighted by smokers noisily congregating outside neighboring pubs with drinks in hand, which could break street drinking laws.

Source: EADT. Link

Smokers are staying away from bingo halls in their droves. Gavin O’Connor investigates how the smoking ban is hitting the bingo hall tills

BINGO halls across South Wales are feeling the drag of a major profit slump six months into the smoking ban.

And managers are bracing themselves for more dwindling revenue when the colder weather soon kicks in.

The serious profit slide has been caused by smokers avoiding the big cash-generating games to catch up on a quick puff outside the buildings.

The numerous bingo halls the Echo contacted all reported a drop of between 15 to 20 per cent in revenue and workingmen’s clubs and associations where a pint and a fag go hand in hand have also said the same.

The company set up in the town exactly 11 years ago this month.

Kelly said when interval of the paper games takes place at 8pm, there’s a mass exodus of smokers through the door before an 8.15pm resumption.

Kelly’s friend, Alison Griffiths, 31, of Cherry Grove, Gurnos, is one of the smoking-ban casualties.

She stopped playing three months ago because of the new law.

She said: “Everything is interrupted now and you can’t enjoy it the same because it’s a different experience.

“I think a lot of people feel the same.”

South Wales’ biggest bingo operator Castle Bingo refused to comment in any way on the smoking ban but managers at competing clubs say the issue is very real and worsening.
St Minver, which operates the world’s largest bingo network, carried out a survey of 3,000 UK bingo players to find out their attitudes towards the ban.

The survey found internet gaming services would experience a boom with more and more smokers putting their feet up at home, lighting up and clicking online.

The study revealed 62 per cent of bingo players are smokers and that 33 per cent of them will play less often while 21 per cent will stop playing in clubs altogether.

Just 14 per cent of smokers said they will kick the habit so they can continue playing with 63 per cent of smokers saying they will increase the amount they spend playing online as a result of the ban.

Mambha Param, who has been manager at Riva Bingo in Splott for more than a year but involved with the industry for nearly two decades, said it was a depressing time for the bingo industry and takings at his hall were down about a fifth.

“We’ve been struggling really badly.

Workingmen’s clubs are trying different methods to combat the revenue slide.
John Gould, steward at Cilfynydd Constitutional Club, said: “The smoking ban has certainly had an effect.

“In the last couple of weeks, we have put an outside smoking area in and that’s helped.

“We had a few in for the rugby games recently but after an hour, they bought some cans and went home to watch so they could smoke as well.

Pat Grabham, stewardess at the Royal British Legion in Bridgend for 25 years, said the end of the summer season spelled frostier times at the till.

“So far we’ve been lucky because the Crown (adjacent pub) has closed – the tenants were smokers and they decided to finish. We’ve picked up some of their custom and we’re putting some money away to cope with what’s going to happen in the winter. It’s not something we’re looking forward to.”

Source: icWales.co.uk. Link