Smoking ban 'killing off' pubs

7:16am Monday 31st December 2007

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Pub landlords across Oxfordshire have blamed the smoking ban for killing off trade.

Half the pubs quizzed in an Oxford Mail survey said they had suffered losses since the ban was introduced six months ago.

Most said they had seen trade drop by 50 per cent - and one last night said he was quitting after 14-years in the trade because his business was losing more than £1,000 each week.

Don Stone, landlord of the Plough Inn, in Stert Street, Abingdon, said: "I am totally fed up with this country and the smoking ban was the last straw.

"I'm pulling out of the pub on April 11 - and I'm leaving to live in Cyprus.

"This smoking ban has killed my trade, my figures are down 40 per cent and I'm losing £1,000 a week. I just can't go on like this.

"Smokers have to go outside to smoke - and yet they can't stand out in the street drinking.

"And where are all these people who said they would use pubs if they were smoke-free? I've not seen anything of them."

His views were echoed in Oxford where Ricky Harrison, manager of the Hollybush Inn in Osney, said: "We've had a sufficient drop in trade - about 50 per cent.

"It's getting much harder to run a pub these days."

We surveyed 32 pubs in Oxford, Abingdon, Bicester, Didcot, Witney, Wantage, Wallingford, Kidlington and Chipping Norton exactly six months after a ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants came into force on July 1.

In all, 16 landlords backed the ban - while 16 disagreed.

Brian Hodges, manager of Ye Olde Pioneer in Bicester's Market Square said trade had dropped by a quarter and his takings were £1,500-a-week down.

He said: "Six months down the line you can see smaller pubs like mine are going to have to close - this ban is just killing off an English tradition."

However, some landlords welcomed the ban and said spending money on smoking areas and providing food had attracted extra business.

Dan Smaje, manager of the Royal Blenheim in St Ebbes, Oxford, said: "It's gone a lot better than I thought and now I actually prefer it.

"We don't have the situation now where people come in, see the smoky atmosphere, turn and walk out."

At least 12 pubs have closed in Oxford over the past two years, according to the Oxford branch of the Campaign for Real Ale - one every eight weeks.

Amanda Sandford, research manager at anti-smoking pressure group Action on Smoking and Heath, said: "It's easy for pubs to say the smoking ban is the only reason for the drop in trade, but there may be other factors like the lousy summer we had.

"The ban is not only about the economics - it has been brought in because people working in the trade are essentially being exposed to toxic smoke."