TODAY marks the third anniversary since smokers in York were banned from lighting in a pubs and bars.

The nationwide legislation, which banned smoking in any enclosed public place, caused huge controversy at the time with smokers claiming their human rights were being compromised while health groups welcomed the new rules with open arms.

Three years on and the debate still remains easy to reignite; recently released figures show heart attack rates are down since the ban, but landlords complain the rules have been another nail in the coffin of the great British boozer.

To get an idea of how the effect of the ban in the past three years, The Press spoke to three York workers for whom it remains a burning issue.


• Tony Richardson, landlord of The Pack of Cards in Lindsey Avenue in Acomb, said: “I think the Government wanted people to be more healthy and to stop passive smoking – which I agree with. I would rather go outside for a cigarette anyway.

“But one man I know, who was a reformed non-smoker, had nobody to talk to when everyone went outside for a cigarette so he started going outside with the smokers and ended up smoking again. In regards to the food trade it’s done some good, but for beer sales it’s not done too well. I would like to see it revoked. The only thing I would miss is coming down stairs and not smelling stale smoke or not having the smell of smoke on your clothes.”


• Acomb GP Doctor Francis Ayre said he was sceptical of the ban when it was introduced, but now has little doubt of the benefits.

He said: “I think it’s done a lot. The rate of heart attacks has come down and I think that has been the case throughout Europe wherever the ban has been introduced.

“A lot of smokers have continued smoking anyway, but I think it’s been good in terms of passive smoking.

“When the ban came in I was unsure of what the benefits would be, but now I think the health benefits are there and I think they will become more and more obvious.

“If we are seeing these sorts of benefits after three years, I think at ten years the benefits will be a lot more.”


• Liz Levett, head of environmental enforcement at City of York Council, did not blame the smoking ban but said many cigarette ends were discarded on the streets of York.

“The main problem with cigarette ends, like with chewing gum, is that people don’t seem to regard it as litter, she said. “They throw them down without thinking about it – it’s a problem.

“In one eight-hour period last summer in York, we picked up 30,525 cigarette ends; that’s 3,815 per hour and 63.5 each minute. That is the scale of the problem.”

The mountain of cigarette ends collected prompted the council team to launch a huge information campaign on littering the streets and included officers handing out portable ash trays to smokers, as well as handing out leaflets and putting up posters warning that litterers could face a fine.

She said: “Since then we have issued 80 fixed-penalty notices. We have warned you – now we are enforcing it.

“If you want to smoke, that’s fine – just don’t drop your cigarette ends on the floor.”