Council stubs out planned ban on smoking outside pubs

[The Straight Story]

Council stubs out planned ban on smoking outside pubs

BARNSLEY Council has backed down from its plans to make the town the first in the country to ban smoking on pavements outside pubs and cafés.

After talks with representatives of the pub trade it yesterday dropped its hardline stance and issued a statement saying it would be left up to individual venues to decide whether they wanted to operate a voluntary ban.

Landlords and café owners had faced having their £250-a-year licences to allow drinking on street pavements revoked if customers lit up outside their premises. Smoking in beer gardens would still have been permitted.

The proposals, which could have been introduced in April, had prompted a hostile response from licensees, who have already complained of a drop in trade since the ban on smoking in enclosed spaces was brought in last year.

Paul McNicholas, chairman of the town centre Pubwatch scheme, had threatened to go to court to challenge their legality.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Council-stubs-out-planned-ban.3824404.jp

Give it time.