63 replies to this topic

[westhuller]

Last week MPs from the three main parties hosted a reception at The House of Commons gain support for a campaign to amend the smoking ban.The main point of the meeting was to amend the bill and allow ventilated smoking rooms back into pubs.
Now I hate smoking and there is nothing worse than choking to death while having a pint and coming home stinking of the stuff but with the closure of 4,148 pubs in England alone since the smoking ban has been brought in should the old smoking rooms be brought back to help an industry that is on its knees. The "local" will soon be a thing of the past. Well ventilated smoking rooms with closed doors on must be better than having people stood outside on the pavement.

Edited by westhuller, 04 July 2011 - 07:30 PM.

[westhuller]

Wrong forum can you move please

[Wellsy4HullFC]

Last week MPs from the three main parties hosted a reception at The House of Commons gain support for a campaign to amend the smoking ban.The main point of the meeting was to amend the bill and allow ventilated smoking rooms back into pubs.
Now I hate smoking and there is nothing worse than choking to death while having a pint and coming home stinking of the stuff but with the closure of 4,148 pubs in England alone since the smoking ban has been brought in should the old smoking rooms be brought back to help an industry that is on its knees. The "local" will soon be a thing of the past. Well ventilated smoking rooms with closed doors on must be better than having people stood outside on the pavement.

Think this is the wrong forum for this discussion like, but I do sort of agree. The smoking ban has massively hit the pub industry. Just depends on how they go about it. Is tons of people stood outside the main door really the answer?

[westhuller]

Messaged the mods to move it.

Moving smoking on to the street outside pubs has not done anything but move the problem. The local boozer will soon be a thing of the past. Also with the supermarkets alcohol price wars the pubs are getting it from both sides.

Edited by westhuller, 04 July 2011 - 07:41 PM.

[Old Frightful]

I believe every pub should have a smoking room.

A 6' x 4' shed at the far end of the car park should suffice.

[The 4 of Us]

Did only smokers ever go to the pub?

Increase tax on Supermarket alcohol sales and reduce for consumption on the premises.

[The 4 of Us]

.

Edited by The 4 of Us, 04 July 2011 - 07:44 PM.

[westhuller]

Did only smokers ever go to the pub?

Increase tax on Supermarket alcohol sales and reduce for consumption on the premises.

I can see what you are getting at, I am anti smoking and think it is a disgusting habit but The facts don't lie.I just think it would be a shame for the "local" to be a thing of the past when better arrangements can be made for those who want to smoke than standing on the street.

[Johnoco]

I too hate smoking but the fact is pubs are disappearing faster than ever. This is not solely the fault of the smoking ban, supermarket booze etc and the cost of a pint are huge factors. If they could find a balance that revived pubs a little, I would be willing to live with that. They would have to be properly ventilated though.

[Shadow]

I can see what you are getting at, I am anti smoking and think it is a disgusting habit but The facts don't lie.I just think it would be a shame for the "local" to be a thing of the past when better arrangements can be made for those who want to smoke than standing on the street.

Smoking banned in pubs, fact 1

4000 + pubs close, fact 2

I don't see any evidence that fact 1 caused fact 2.
Pubs were struggling before the ban and any business that fails to adapt to changing requirements and conditions will have a hard time staying open

[Johnoco]

Yes Shadow but look around, the pubs are disappearing fast. Way too fast to simply ignore.

[l'angelo mysterioso]

Yes Shadow but look around, the pubs are disappearing fast. Way too fast to simply ignore.

get ready for exxile coming back

anyway if smoking is the only reason, or even the main reason for pubs going down the tubes, then there wss something wrong with pubs. Theere are lots of reasons for the decline of pubs, some external influences, some self inflicted

social habitss change
neigbourhoods change or disappear
the demography of an area changes
people prefer supping at home
the pubs are shyte
alcohol is chesaper bought at the super market
peoples' homes are more comfy-I'm not kidding one reason for people going to the pub was that it was more warm, comfortqble and convivial than your own living room
homogemneity of pubs-the only pub chain that seems to work is wetherspoons, other than that pub chain pubs are shyte.



Sheepscar in Leeds is an interesting place in its own right, particularly interesting because of the decline of its pubs. It was inevitable.
It was the home of Leeds Irish community. Pubs like the Roscoe(long demolished for road widening), the Regent, and the White Hart were centres of Irish supping and entertainment. The Regent shut recently after a swansong as an ersatz irish pub, the pointer shut, the white hart shut, as did the city of mabgate and the skinners arms. That is a major cull, but I can't see how banning smoking was a cause. The New Rscoe, developed from a defunct working mens' club does ok. It's a popular rock venue with a sometimes comical line in tribute bands.
The place has been depopulated, and split up by road schemes. the local population has changed-fewer people liove there, and those that do populate student flats and yuppie apartments, and the culture has changed by a the dispersal of the irish population.
People come from miles to check out the Sex Patels(the world's only asian sex pistols tribute bands), but they wont travel for a drink in tyhe other gaffs-there's no reason to.
maybe these4 places would be packed if people were allowed to suck cancer sticks inside them, but I don't think so somehow, and th story is repeated all over the place

[Steve May]

Yes Shadow but look around, the pubs are disappearing fast. Way too fast to simply ignore.

Right, but is it the smoking ban? Or is it a combination of the demographic changes, recession, licensing laws which make it far cheaper to buy booze in supermarkets, and pubcos who run their pub estates as debt funded real estate companies rather than as chains of pubs.

I'm sure the smoking ban hasn't helped, but companies like Enterprise look to me to have a terrible business model, one that is shared by most of the pubcos, and that's the real problem.


It would be a terrible backward step to repeal the smoking ban and I doubt it would make much difference. There are other things the government could do that would help landlords a lot more.

[Chairman M]

It would be a terrible backward step to repeal the smoking ban and I doubt it would make much difference. There are other things the government could do that would help landlords a lot more.

Couldn't agree more.

[Steve May]

get ready for exxile coming back

anyway if smoking is the only reason, or even the main reason for pubs going down the tubes, then there wss something wrong with pubs. Theere are lots of reasons for the decline of pubs, some external influences, some self inflicted

social habitss change
neigbourhoods change or disappear
the demography of an area changes
people prefer supping at home
the pubs are shyte
alcohol is chesaper bought at the super market
peoples' homes are more comfy-I'm not kidding one reason for people going to the pub was that it was more warm, comfortqble and convivial than your own living room
homogemneity of pubs-the only pub chain that seems to work is wetherspoons, other than that pub chain pubs are shyte.

...

maybe these4 places would be packed if people were allowed to suck cancer sticks inside them, but I don't think so somehow, and th story is repeated all over the place

There's a lot in this. I believe that at one time Marsden had something like 50 pubs and clubs, and 7 breweries. Now it has about fifteen, and most of those are empty most of the time. The great cull of pubs round here happened over the years long before the smoking ban. To my knowledge, only one has actually closed since the smoking ban - which was a shame because it had a great name, The Old New Inn (so called to distinguish it from the still extant, and indeed thriving, New Inn)

There are a few boozers that are clearly in the wrong place, away from the centre of the village but not good enough to warrant travelling to in favour of closer ones. How they stay open I don't know. Certainly in one case it's been done by a pubco fleecing a landlord ("Run this pub" - yes, put in twenty grand of your own money and when it's gone the pubco will throw you out in favour of the next mark)

[Johnoco]

I never said that it was purely the smoking ban, there are other factors which I listed. But clearly the people who were meant to start going to the pub once smoking was banned, aren't. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many closing down.....and there are a lot of them, not just a few.

I was one of the strongest proponents of the smoking ban, I hate it, but IMO it was a mistake and there's nothing wrong with looking at some form of compromise before they all disappear.

[Johnoco]

I never said that it was purely the smoking ban, there are other factors which I listed. But clearly the people who were meant to start going to the pub once smoking was banned, aren't. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many closing down.....and there are a lot of them, not just a few.

I was one of the strongest proponents of the smoking ban, I hate it, but IMO it was a mistake and there's nothing wrong with looking at some form of compromise before they all disappear.

[JohnM]

Its fine teh way it is, in my view. I agre with L'Angelo about the reasons for the decline in pub numbers.

[l'angelo mysterioso]

I never said that it was purely the smoking ban, there are other factors which I listed. But clearly the people who were meant to start going to the pub once smoking was banned, aren't. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many closing down.....and there are a lot of them, not just a few.

I was one of the strongest proponents of the smoking ban, I hate it, but IMO it was a mistake and there's nothing wrong with looking at some form of compromise before they all disappear.

I know you didn't
but there are those who have and will

however I dsagree about your idea that it was a mistake

[JohnM]

Its fine the way it is, in my view. I agree with L'Angelo about the reasons for the decline in pub numbers.