Banning smoking in beer gardens would be a "spiteful and mean-spirited act" says Forest

Fri 14th April, 2017

Responding to reports that some Labour councils are said to be pushing for the smoking ban to be extended to "alfresco dining areas" of restaurants and beer gardens, Simon Clark, director of Forest, said:

"Extending the smoking ban to beer gardens would be an outrageous attack on people's right to smoke in outdoor public places where there is no risk to anyone else's health.

"It would be a spiteful and mean-spirited act that would also deny proprietors the ability to choose a policy on smoking that best suits their business."

Welcoming a comment by local government minister Marcus Jones that the proposals were "ill-founded" and could lead to "massive pub closures", Clark said:

"Since the smoking ban was introduced a decade ago thousands of pubs have closed, many as a direct result of the ban.

"The most vulnerable pubs were those without a beer garden or outdoor space. If the smoking ban was extended to outdoor areas many more pubs would be at risk because even more smokers would choose to smoke and drink at home."

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