LETTERs
Making sense of smoking laws
I note from an East Lindsay District Council pamphlet that the fine for "failing to prevent smoking in a smoke-free place" is up to £2,500.
Please inform me how I should implement this diktat and how far I can go to implement the régime's new law.
I would also be interested to know what type of back- up will be available and how quickly it will arrive, should someone refuse to extinguish a cigarette.
To what lengths can I legally go to stop someone smoking on my premises - for example, what if a frail but belligerent elderly person or 7foot tall arrogant and aggressive 20-stone man with a reputation for violence refuses to extinguish a cigarette or leave when asked?
Such hypothetical examples are only imaginary until they happen - what then?
I need to know how to protect myself and my law- abiding customers legally, physically and financially, while implementing and policing the legislation.
What measures have East Lindsay District Council and the police taken to protect the public while we implement the law of the land?
Ronnie Moncrieff
via email from
marquismoncrieff@aol.com
Legal editor Peter Coulson writes: This situation is very similar to enforcement of drinking-up time under the old law. If you substitute "glass of beer" for "cigarette" you have the same situation in both cases: the licensee or staff member must use best endeavours to prevent the person from breaking the law ("reasonable steps" in the Health Act 2006). It is a defence to show that you did this if you are charged with failing to prevent smoking.
In the absence of positive evidence to the contrary (eg, that you stood aside and did nothing) the court must assume the defence is satisfied, so there is a positive duty on the prosecution to show deliberate flouting of the new law by you or your staff.
As I wrote some weeks ago, it is, therefore, not a requirement to forcibly remove the cigarette or to pour a bucket of water over the customer. Strong verbal dissuasion is as far as you can go, plus a threat to ban the person if he continues.
A simple way to keep customers
The only way to attract non-smokers to pubs is to offer cheaper beer. I'm pretty sure non-smokers do not stay away from pubs because of the smoke but because the price of alcohol is beyond their budgets.
Cheaper pubs are packed with smoking and non-smoking customers. As a non-smoker I'm sure I speak for a lot of people when I say it doesn't bother me whether there are smokers around or not.
A lot of pubs will soon have to close as they are struggling to keep customers from visiting cheaper establishments.
When customers can't smoke in public they will stay indoors eating takeaways. Off-licences and supermarkets will thrive.
Catherine Williams
via email from
cathphil@btinternet.com
Stings just create resentment
As a former police officer, I find the need for stings appalling. If the police and local authorities visited
pro-actively, stings would be unnecessary.
My colleagues and I found that there is nothing more effective in dealing with a "rogue" licensee than the sight of a couple of uniforms. Target real "problem pubs" in this way and word soon goes round. Stings create resentment and accusations of questionable practice by the authorities.
Robert Feal-Martinez
via email from
r.feal-martinez@btconnect.com
Ready, steady - get cooking
Good luck to Gordon [Ramsay] and thanks to all TV chefs who have entered the world of pubs. You are contributing focus and standards and encouraging those within the business who need that little extra "nudge" to dip their toes into the food side of their businesses.
This is essential when taking business forward in most, but not all, pubs.
Saying this, I am aware of many great catering achievements within pub food, delivered by trained chefs and "gifted amateurs" alike. Don't let lack of skills hold you back - you can either buy in skills or acquire them yourselves.
It's quite fun, you know - as a former chef myself, I have the T-shirt.
Go for it - and of course keep finding new ways of adding value to your businesses.
Graham Allman
managing director, GA-Select, via email from
graham@ga-select.com
