REVELLERS have issued a stark warning after their party city outlawed smoking outside new bars.
Sir Keir Starmer last week admitted the government is considering a UK-wide ban after The Sun exclusively revealed plans.
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Newcastle City Council decreed that the alfresco areas of all new bars, restaurants and pubs must be smoke free zones.
It is now forbidden to have a puff at around 100 premises in the area – but locals have blasted the move, saying it puts them off trying recently opened pubs.
Steven Davidson, 39, a carer, said: “Newcastle is a party city and is advertised as a party city where we can drink and smoke.
“It feels like the opposite of what we are.
“You can get drunk in the street but you can’t smoke.
“I had never heard of this rule. We pay council tax and it seems as though no-one was consulted.
“The whole ban feels like you’re back to being an infant and being told what to do.
“It’s a nanny state. They have to loosen the reins.
“I’ve never had anyone complain about me smoking and I’ve never been asked to stop.
“If I was told to not smoke or that I wasn’t allowed to, it would make me go to another bar.
“It isn’t fair that new bars aren’t allowed to have smokers but old ones can. They’re at a disadvantage and could lose custom over it.”
Andrew Harvey, 47, a steel worker from Hartlepool said: “I’ll just stop going to pubs, I would rather drink in my own home.
“If there was a bar in Newcastle that stopped us from smoking but there was one next door that allowed it, I would leave and go there.
“We have our usual pubs and they allow us to smoke outside so we will continue to go there.
“It would put me off trying anywhere new if there was a chance I couldn’t smoke there because of the license.
“The ban means you will be treated as an outcast.
“It means you will have to finish off your pint and leave to have a smoke. You wouldn’t want to just leave your drink on the table while you walked down the street.
“If I went to a new bar and they said I couldn’t smoke after I bought a pint, I would neck it, leave and go somewhere else.”
On Thursday, Starmer confirmed he was considering a ban on outdoor smoking, which could see Brits barred from lighting up in beer gardens or outside stadiums.
Cigarettes would also be banned in small parks and the outdoor areas of restaurants, shisha bars, hospitals and football grounds in a bid to improve public health.
The hospitality sector sounded the alarm that it could cripple already-struggling pubs and bars.
Kate Nicholls, the chair of Hospitality UK, said the proposals were of a “huge degree of concern”.
She told LBC: “This wouldn’t just affect pub gardens… It’s also restaurant areas. It’s the cafes. It’s the high streets. It’s the seating that’s outside those areas.
“So where there’s been a heavy investment made in the period post-Covid into creating those outside areas, which have brought so much light and life to our town centres and high streets.
“This would be a very significant impact on those customers that use those areas, both smokers and non smokers.”
RIGHT TO BAN CIGS OUTSIDE?
YES
Says Lizzie Parry, Head of Health
SMOKING kills more people than obesity, alcohol, drugs and lack of exercise combined.
Most deaths are down to lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart disease.
But it’s also linked to cancer of the lip, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, stomach and liver.
And it’s not just your health that’s affected.
Inhaling second-hand smoke has been linked to a greater risk of heart disease, lung and breast cancers, strokes, dementia and asthma in non-smokers.
Anything that helps create a world that protects children and young people from the harms of smoking is a no-brainer to me.
I’m old enough to remember nights out before the smoking ban, when it was normal to get home stinking of smoke and with your clothes ruined by fag burns.
Maybe in ten years the idea of smoking in public will be just that — a horrible memory.
Younger generations will thank us.
NO
Says Shaun Custis, Head of Sport
I NEED a fag just to calm down after the latest clampdown from the government zealots — and I haven’t had one for a month.
I’m one of those occasional smokers who likes a cig in the backyard of the pub on a Friday night after a couple of pints but rarely goes near them otherwise.
Yes, I know no fags are better, but give me a break.
At least it’s not a double cheese burger and fries, which is no doubt next on the list of the health police.
The argument goes the ban on smoking inside pubs didn’t kill the trade.
But being able to pop outside for a drag saved the day.
Now, if you can’t even do that, it will be time to stay at home, invite your mates round and nip out to the patio — until they stop you smoking on your own land.
And, as drinking is also bad for you, we’re not far off an alcohol ban in pubs, too, in this world of utter madness.
It’s insane. Anyone got a light?
Hitting back at the bill, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “It’ll be the end of pubs.”
He added: ” The rumoured ban on smoking in pub gardens or on the pavement outside pubs will kill off the traditional pub forever.
“For my own part, I simply would not go to the pub ever again if these restrictions are imposed.”
The distance someone will be allowed to smoke away from one of these locations is yet to be determined.
Especially thorny is the decision to slap pub gardens and restaurant seating areas with the restrictions.
A 2020 government press release made explicitly clear that banning outdoor smoking in bars would be a hammer blow.
It said: “Since the existing ban was introduced, businesses have invested heavily in outdoor areas. Banning outdoor smoking would lead to significant closures and job losses.”
Hanna Jones is a manager at Black Sheep Coffee in Newcastle city centre, where smoking is banned in the alfresco seating area under the new rules.
The 25-year-old claims it’s hard to enforce, although there are a number of no smoking signs on the tables.
She said: “A lot of people don’t realise that these rules are in place and they don’t understand why they can’t smoke.
“They think it’s us instead of the council and they question us on why they aren’t allowed to smoke. They get quite annoyed.
“We have to ask them to step outside of the barrier.
“It’s hard to enforce and we have to ask people quite often. The council are usually ok with us and we haven’t had a fine or anything.
“If everyone was smoking outside it maybe a problem.
“It’s part of our paving licence with them and if they caught someone smoking they would give us a warning.”
Rachael Muras, 47, a retail worker from Newcastle said: “I didn’t know that it was banned in Newcastle already.
‘SHOCKED’
“I’m really shocked it’s been banned by Newcastle council since everyone is out every night and doing whatever they want to do.
“You can’t stop people from smoking, no matter what the government say, people are still going to try it.
“The venues that have had to ban smoking already could lose some customers but on the other hand they may also attract people who don’t smoke or are really into health and fitness.”
Craig Storey, 54, a driver, from Berkshire, said: “It’s quite a shock that it is already being banned here.
“I visit Newcastle once or twice a year and had no idea.
“I don’t know how they are going to enforce it. Are they going to have some sort of warden coming round?”
However backers of an outdoor smoking ban said it would both help save lives and billions for the NHS.
Dr Layla McCay, of the NHS Confederation, told the BBC: “It’s the leading cause of preventable illness in the UK.
“So, we are heartened to see that progress is being made and that the intention is moving forward to really address one of Britain’s main drivers of health inequalities.”
A spokesperson for Newcastle City Council said: “Smoking is a killer and too many people in Newcastle die from smoking related illnesses every year.
“The negative impact of tobacco has been recognised as the single biggest preventable cause of death in England and it can cause harm to almost every part of the human body.
“We have made progress in Newcastle but the rate of smoking is still much higher in some groups including those from disadvantaged communities and people with mental health conditions.
“As a council we are very supportive of the government’s smoke free agenda.
“All new licenses for pavement cafes and seating areas outside bars, pubs and restaurants are required to be no smoking areas and around 100 premises of this type are now smoke free in the city.
“These changes have been welcomed by people in our city and we have not received any complaints about a negative impact from business owners.
“When planning these changes we made sure we considered the potential wider impacts of littering and noise from displaced smokers and implemented regulations to help resolve these issues.
“We continue to actively advocate for tobacco control and believe that creating smoke free environments is major step forward to improving public health.”
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