NewsDigest

Three renegade licensees are continuing to defy the smoking ban, with local councils showing no sign of taking action. Customers at the Swan, Bradshawgate, Bolton; Dog Inn, Ewyas Harold, Hereford, and Happy Scot, in Blackpool, have been free to light up since the ban began on 1 July. All received official warnings from council officials, but no legal proceedings have been issued. Swan host Nick Hogan said a week had passed without any contact from Bolton Council.

Licensed trade consultants CGA has launched the biggest data-gathering exercise on brands performance in the on-trade. Its Brands Index aims to provide brands owners with a virtual X-ray vision of their products in areas such as pricing, market penetration, distribution and sales. Regional field research teams will visit 1,000 premises per month and collect 140 pieces of data from each one.

Novus Leisure has re-launched its London bar and restaurant-booking website. The site, latenightlondon.co.uk, aims to appeal to the growing female customer base, which accounts for 70% of the site's subscribers. Customers will now be able to plan and book a multi-venue night out at venues such as Tiger Tiger, Strawberry Moons and Motion.

Tesco Express, in Crawley, West Sussex has been banned from selling alcohol for 28 days after it sold alcohol to underage drinkers three times in three weeks. This week Tesco withdrew its appeal against the ban. A Tesco spokesman said: "We take the sale of alcohol to underage people extremely seriously and continue to dedicate substantial resources to supporting our staff in tackling underage sales."

Look out for PubChef in next week's Morning Advertiser. In this issue we look at the hot issue of superfoods and hear from the award-winning Petrou brothers about making the best fish and chips.