Memorandum by Ms Nicola Mills (SP40)
I write to voice my concern over the proposed
ban on smoking in pubs.
I have over 10 years of experience in the licensed
trade, having managed many pubs of varying tastes and styles.
I have been the leaseholder and licensee of
The Woolpack for over three years and I am very anxious of the
affect the bill will have on my trade.
The Woolpack is a small traditional family run
free house just outside the city centre.
We have a blossoming food trade lunch times
and evenings and we would certainly be forced to close if we were
to stop serving food.
We are very popular with the surrounding offices,
and their staff enjoy spending their lunch hour relaxing in the
bar with a coffee or glass of cola. Many meet in groups or read
a newspaper or magazine over a sandwich or bowl of chips. Nearly
all enjoy a cigarette away from their no smoking offices—as
it is often raining they do not enjoy standing huddled on the
pavement!
As a non-smoker myself I am well aware of the
danger of passive smoking; but my experience is that, with adequate
ventilation, the problem can be contained.
As for protecting the health of staff. All of
my bar staff smoke; and most staff are fully aware that they would
be working in a smoking environment.
To save a troubled section of the trade—as
small independent pubs are—I believe you should be considering
demanding that all pubs ban smoking in the bar area, confining
smoking to a small, well ventilated, area towards the side or
rear of the building (an old Smoke Room if you will).
To insist on a complete blanket ban or, worse,
to split pubs with regard to size or the serving of food will
not only destroy the most traditional type of English recreation.
As science will tell us, the beneficial effects that eating has
while drinking alcohol can be seen in bars in France, Italy and
Germany amongst others. The proposals to divorce smoking from
eating will undermine the creation of a European cafe culture
that the new licensing reforms have tried to encourage.
September 2005
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