The winners and the losers
Rob McKenna
White Swan, Bedworth, Warwickshire
"I would definitely drop the food I serve and remain a smoking pub. The food is not a large part of our business anyway as we basically only cater for the office staff at lunchtimes. We have the extractor fans anyway. Beer and fags go together. We host discos and music events and would probably lose out if we were no smoking."
Roger Gregory
The Fountain, Bridgwater, Somerset
Wadworth tenant, joint with Denise Burgess
"We only do lunchtime food and we would most definitely stop that. We are a real-ale pub in the town centre and are pretty unique in that sense. I will allow my customers to buy food from the bakery across the road and bring it in here to eat. I will not be selling it to them. I am dead against the ban and it is completely hypocritical. If the Government wants to ban it, they should stop taking the tax from it and ban the manufacture altogether."
Hugh Kerr
The Globe, Leicester
Everards licensee
"We have about an 80%-20% drink-food split and I am not sure what we would do. Personally, I would like to stick my fingers up at them as they are taking away our human rights. We should be allowed to have a split with some smoking areas and some no smoking areas. They (the Government) are always going on about getting rid of dictators and yet here they are dictating to us. How are they going to police it?"
Gary Marshall
Blisland Inn, Blisland, Cornwall
Freeholder, plus another pub, the Cornwall Arms
"Our split is 30% food to 70% drink so it leaves us in a quandary. I don't know if we could survive without food and I don't know if we could survive without smoking. The majority of our lunchtime trade is from food. We have no smoking areas in the pub and filters and an extractor fan which seems to work fine among the customers. Even non-smokers prefer to be in the bar area as it is more atmospheric. Perhaps I will retire and sit at home smoking my pipe by the time it comes in."
Peter Garstin
Yew Tree Inn, Barfrestone, Kent
No smoking pub since 31 August
"I think it will take away our competitive advantage a bit but that won't be for a couple of years and we are happy to be the leader of the pack. I think the Government has gone a little far in not allowing separate rooms to be allowed smoking and this may be a sacrificial lamb to be taken out later on. Our smoking ban has been a commercial success. We have lost a few drinkers who threw their toys out of the pram but those are not the customers you want anyway. The wet trade is slightly down, but the increased food sales have more than compensated for it."
Paul Chicken
Bull's Head, Craswall,
Herefordshire
"I would be quite happy to see a ban in place really. In essence I agree with it. I took my kids into a pub for a meal the other day and they were pulling their sweaters over their faces because of the smoke. It is not nice."
