A PUB has delayed stubbing out smoking - over fears that food sales will rocket once a ban is in place.

Pub giant JD Wetherspoon had hoped to make The Postern Gate, in Piccadilly, York, a completely smoke-free zone by the middle of this month.

But the move has been postponed after test bans in other pubs across the country prompted a sudden rise in food sales.

That meant the trial pubs' kitchens had to be refurbished, slowing the whole process.

Now a ban at The Postern Gate has been put back until similar improvement work can be carried out.

Dave Herbert, duty manager at The Postern Gate, said: "We don't have a date yet, but the pub will have to close for at least two days for works to be done both front and back of house."

He said: "I am still looking forward to the ban, though.

"I am a smoker myself, and this will be a good incentive for me to make an effort to give up.

"I was initially very sceptical about a ban, but after hearing various things from the company and visiting a non-smoking pub in Exeter, I cannot wait.

"The sooner the better, as far as I'm concerned."

A spokesman for the chain said it was uncertain exactly when The Postern Gate and Wetherspoon's other York pub, The Punchbowl in Blossom Street, would stop reserving seats for non-smokers and become entirely non-smoking.

But by the end of this month it still hoped to have 30 non-smoking pubs across the country.

The chain, whose York outlets are among 650 nationwide, has converted 11 sites so far. It plans to make all of its pubs smoke-free by May 2006, two years ahead of Government anti-smoking legislation.

Wetherspoon finance director Jim Clarke said he remained "highly galvanised" by the smoking ban.

He said: "We have lost some beer sales as there are those smokers who leave us on day one, but then you start attracting new customers and people who knew we were there but had not used us before. A lot of that trade is food-based.

"We are convinced this is the way forward and that non-smoking pubs are the way things are going to go in the future."

In December last year an Evening Press phone poll revealed that an overwhelming 74.5 per cent of readers who took part supported a smoking ban in pubs.

Updated: 09:54 Monday, May 02, 2005