PUBS need smokers, according to celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson.
He argues that the smoking ban is a major factor in the slump that has seen an average of 56 pubs closing each week.
Mr Worrall Thompson, who runs the Greyhound at Rotherfield Peppard, is backing the Save Our Pubs and Clubs campaign to amend the ban, along with artist David Hockney.
He said: “The problem is the pub used to be somewhere for adults to escape to. Now that’s changed and lots of people don’t want to go outside. Where are the thousands of people they said would flood back into the smoke-free pubs because I haven’t seen many?”
He said outdoor smoking sections created more mess and noise pollution while making pub gardens off limits to non-smokers.
The group has suggested that the ban be amended to the Spanish model where smaller venues can choose to be smoking or non- smoking, while larger venues have a designated smoking room that doesn’t affect air quality elsewhere.
Mr Worrall Thompson, who is a smoker, said: “The Government just doesn’t think things through. If smoking was made illegal then I would understand it. The reason it doesn’t make it illegal is the £9.5billion it makes in taxation.
“The old man who’s been coming to his local for years for a beer and a smoke isn’t going to want to go outside in the cold. There are a lot of people who feel that way.”
He said the ban had affected trade at the Greyhound, which he reopened in July after putting it into administration in February.
“Right now with the recession you get busy weekends and food, but the drinking trade has dropped,” he said.
Published on 28 September 2009
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