SIR -- City councillor Susanna Pressel says that a public smoking ban has not affected bar and club trade in New York or Dublin (Oxford Mail, October 25).
New York has lost 7,500 jobs in the hospitality industry, and the leaders of that industry are suing the mayor, Michael Bloomberg, over loss of earnings.
In Dublin, pub and club trade down between 20 and 30 per cent, and 1,500 jobs have been lost.
If this amount of trade is lost in the summer, how much will be lost in the winter when smokers can't smoke outside?
A writer in The Guardian recently noted that in the Shelbourne Hotel bar, custom was considerably down, and the 'craic' was non-existent -- there were apparently just a few middle-class people drinking wine.
It may be an idea to ask those people who regularly use pubs/clubs in Oxford about a ban. From those I have spoken to, smoking and non-smoking areas are favoured rather than a total ban.
As a native of Oxford (and a Labour voter), it seems we are to be the victims of middle-class obsessions from representatives of the leafier parts of this city, from which most Labour councillors are drawn.
CHRIS FOSTER
Hugh Allen Crescent
Marston
Oxford
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