Pub gardens to re-open on July 4 - what does that mean for smokers?
Thursday, June 11, 2020 at 9:12 The Government has apparently confirmed that pubs will be allowed to partly re-open on July 4.
According to the Morning Advertiser, the pub trade magazine, initial steps will include using beer gardens, terraces and marquees.
As far as smoking is concerned, there has been no update since May 20 when the MA reported:
It is unlikely that the Government will consider any changes to smoking in pub gardens, it is understood.
On May 19, in the wake of Mark Pritchard’s call for restrictions on smoking in seated areas outside pubs, the MA asked:
Would you be supportive of changes to rules about smoking in beer gardens? Should this be banned when pubs reopen? #ukpubs
The reaction on Twitter was overwhelmingly negative. Responses included:
No. We must stop this continued imposition on our liberties. We must push to open without any restrictions. People should be able carry on with their lives and choose to go to the pub. Other people can choose to isolate.
Would you like a nail gun now to drive some more nails in!!!!! We’ve not even opened yet, we’ve not even been given guidance, we’ve not even been convinced there will be ANY trade left without this stupid question!!! Really!! Flushed face
It definitely shouldn't be a blanket ban. It should be up to managers/owners to decide. Much like the original smoking ban should have been.
Any chance of just allowing our industry to fight for its survival without even more legislation? Landlords & operators should be left to make their own decisions, stop this North Korea movement in the UK licensed industry.
It should be optional and up to the individual owners of said venues. I.e. this would kill a Shisha lounge. We have enough red tape in our industry as it is. Leave it alone it’s fine as it is. What happened to freedom of choice in this country.
I know, let's drive even more customers away from pubs when the industry is already on its knees. This will play straight into the hands of the evil pubcos that would happily sell sites for housing/student flats/generic convenience stores to make more money.
No. It's a minefield. For instance in my local there is a small beer garden and the owners rightly don't want smokers around the front door. Where do smokers go if banned in beer gardens?
Ridiculous idea, need to be more open, not more restrictive.
No! Last thing pubs need right now is more legislation and rules. Let common sense prevail and publicans make the best decision for their business, which may involve smoking areas or not.
I’m a landlord also a non smoker. Defiantly [sic] not banned in beer garden.
Even those who supported changes to the rules admitted that now was not the time to introduce further restrictions:
If I'm brutally honest then yes [we should ban smoking] or at least have a smoking section within the garden. However with covid distancing etc we've a lot of policing to do already so a smoking ban would just be another headache.
One comment however stood out and it was from the manager of a well-known brewery-run pub in London:
A good proportion of our customers are smokers and we have no way of sectioning off our pavement drinking into non smokers and smokers. However as an ex smoker I would support an outright ban. It seems unbelievable that people used to smoke in pubs so why not ban it outside too?
I’ve always believed that smoking policies (inside or out) should be set by the proprietor not the government so my question is, if this pub manager dislikes smoking so much, what’s to stop him banning it, even outside?
The reason, I suspect, is this. Aside from the difficulty of enforcement, he hasn’t got the guts to introduce a unilateral ban because he knows he will lose customers to pubs that will accommodate smokers outside.
He therefore hopes the government will make the decision for him, creating a ‘level playing field’ in which every pub has to operate under the same restrictive practise.
If this sounds familiar it’s because it is. Prior to the introduction of the smoking ban a small number of pubs had already gone ‘no-smoking’ and good luck to them. Many of us had no problem with that at all. The more choice the better.
What we objected to was industry people like Wetherspoon’s Tim Martin actively lobbying for a comprehensive ban, thereby eradicating choice for customers and rival pubs alike.
At least we knew where Martin stood on the issue. With the exception of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) in England, and the Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA) in Scotland, the rest of the hospitality industry was utterly feeble in its response to the threat of legislation.
One figure that sticks in my mind is this: between them, 17 hospitality trade associations contributed just £15,000 to the fight against the smoking ban. Forest alone spent £40k and even that was a drop in the ocean in terms of what was really needed.
Ironically it was representatives of the pub industry, led by the British Beer and Pub Association, that applied the coup de grâce when, at the last minute, they opposed plans to exempt private members’ clubs, including working men’s clubs, for fear smokers would abandon pubs in favour of private clubs.
So far, apart from a lone backbench MP, no-one is talking openly about banning smoking outside pubs when restrictions are eased, but I would add the important caveat that we don’t know the extent of the lobbying that may be going on behind the scenes.
From media reports last month my understanding is that the UK Hospitality trade association had come up with a detailed plan that included the recommendation that pubs should ‘patrol’ smoking areas to avoid overcrowding, but there was no mention of smoking being further restricted or prohibited outside.
UK Hospitality was founded in 2018 as a result of a merger between the ALMR and the British Hospitality Association (BHA). In England the ALMR was the only hospitality industry body we could count upon as an ally against the smoking ban and I am reasonably confident they would defend outdoor smoking areas as well.
That confidence does not extend to the largest pub body - the British Beer and Pub Association - which to the best of my knowledge has been silent on the issue.
That could be a good sign because it suggests it is not on the table. We’ve been here before however and nothing – including another last minute stitch-up – would surprise me.
Let's hope that, for once, common sense wins the day.
Reader Comments (3)
These days I don't have a circle of friends to go to the pub with, after the smoking ban, there was nowhere left to meet up. Thirteen years is a long time to be in social isolation, you lose touch.
Smoking areas in pub gardens should be sustained.
I think that the Government (or the Chancellor, at least) is keenly aware that with the damage to the economy that lockdown will inevitably have caused, they really, really will need every penny of tax that they can get once normality starts to resume in full, and (especially given the figures which you cited on here a week or so ago) then, even if they don't admit it, they know darned well that, far from discouraging people from smoking, drinking and driving their cars they will actually need - well - if not to actually encourage people, then at least not to discourage them further than they've already done. Especially, as the overwhelming majority of the comments suggest, there are large numbers of people out there, even amongst those who like the indoor ban, that things have gone quite far enough now.
It's not as if anti-smokers can even use the old "of course we'll rush to the pub garden in huge numbers if smoking is banned there" can they? They used that one to dupe the pub trade good and proper last time, but look what happened. I doubt that there would be many pub owners who would fall for it a second time, having had their fingers burned so badly after falling for it just a few years ago.
And that comment that you highlighted said it all, really, didn't it, with it's slipped-in comment of "as an ex-smoker" ... he/she clearly doesn't really think that there should be an outright ban, he/she just wants one out of personal dislike. True colours showing through again - they just can't help themselves, can they?