Trade leaders meet to discuss practical options
By Tony Halstead
The Government is being pressed to consider practical alternatives to its proposed smoking ban in food pubs in a bid to mitigate the worst effects of it.
Trade leaders met this week to discuss the smoke ban as the consultation period for responses to the White Paper Choosing Health nears its 5 September deadline.
Representatives from the industry came together yesterday for a 'think tank session to devise the best way of putting final submissions to the Department of Health. It is unlikely that a single industry view will emerge.
Meanwhile, the Morning Advertiser has drawn up a list of four major options and alter-natives to the White Paper recommendations in a bid to persuade the Government to give licensees more choice on the smoking issue. An addressed postcard on the front of this issue allows licensees to make their views known.
The four options are designed to limit the disastrous effects of the current proposals, which it is feared could sound the death knell for thousands of community locals.
MA editor Andrew Pring said: 'We urge licensees to express their views to Government before the 5 September deadline on how limiting smoking in pubs can be made workable. We know there is tremendously strong feeling on this issue and licensees should have their say.
The thrust of the MA's alternative strategy is to add more options to the current proposal which forces licensees to choose between running a wet-led smoking pub or food-led smoke-free business.
The four additional suggestions being proposed by the MA are:
l Allow separate smoking rooms for customers in food pubs
l Allow smoking in pubs during non-food trading sessions
l Impose a total smoking ban around all bars by January 2006
l Abandon the proposed exemp- tion of clubs to the new legis- lation.
The Campaign For Real Ale, which has already backed the setting up of smoking rooms, fears many small community pubs will go under if the current proposals become law.
'We believe that smoking should be allowed in separate rooms which are not linked to the bar or serviced by staff, said Camra's Iain Loe.
'Camra feels this is the way forward to save a lot of smaller pubs which would otherwise struggle to survive.
Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations chief executive Tony Payne said many small one-room pubs would suffer either way unless a sensible compromise was adopted by the Government.
'Many licensees have a lot to lose if these plans eventually become law so they need to relay their views before the consultation period ends, he said. 'The proposals threaten the future of many smaller pubs and the Government needs to know from the trade grass roots how licensees are going to be hit.
He said the trade had to have 'a real choice in the way it tackles the smoking issue.
'If you have a separate room you can accommodate smokers if this option becomes a runner but for smaller houses the proposals as they currently stand would be disastrous, he added.
Licensee Russell Green of the Parish Oven, Thorpe Salvin, Worksop, summed up the plight of the trade when he said: 'I do not think our business could survive without smoking customers but nor could it survive without food income, so either way we might go under.
Host Mike Bell of the Porto-bello Gold, Notting Hill, London, said the White Paper proposals undoubtedly favoured the gastro and food-operating pubs.
'Beer turnover will decrease while food and wine income may well increase, but there will be far more losers than winners, he predicted.
'There will be a boost for the non-smokers who enjoy chardonnay and gastro food in pubs but the effect on the suburban and industrial beer-led pubs will be disastrous, he added.
Summit wrestles with smoking consensus
Yesterday's summit meeting of trade leaders was held to formulate a consensus approach to the Choosing Health White Paper.
But a general industry response to the recommendations has already been ruled out. The BII and the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) who organised the meeting accept that trade responses may vary.
ALMR chief executive Nick Bish said: 'The meeting tried to get some form of discussion going on the sort of issues which will form the various submissions.
'People are approaching this from their own level but we are trying to get a common thread running through.
BII chief executive John McNamara said: 'Some operators have already gone their own way but this week we have tried to formulate ways of ensuring that the current exemptions included in the White Paper are protected.
'Smaller pubs have the biggest problem in all this and we do not want to see our community pubs suffer.
MA Comment
The threat of a smoking ban in English pubs horrifies many licensees. They see their regulars deserting in droves, either to working men's clubs or just staying at home. They see all the hard work they've put into their pub ending in failure. And they worry what happens to them and their families then.
This is simply unacceptable. Jobs and businesses should not be destroyed when many people, perhaps still the majority, wish smoking to be allowed to continue in at least part of a pub.
It's for that reason the Morning Advertiser is determined to help the pub trade put its views on smoking to Government as strongly and clearly as possible.
That's why we've printed the card on the front of this week's MA, which you can send to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt as part of the Government's consultation exercise. By filling it in and putting your own stamp on it, Government will have to take notice of what you want.
We think our proposals combine best business practice with the best health solution. And we think they allow licensees the flexibility and freedom to adapt to customer wishes for the years ahead. Make sure the Government thinks so, too.