Planning regulations needed for smoking ban

Local authorities have been warned that pubs are still waiting for the final regulations on the smoking ban before they submit planning applications for any changes.

Rob Hayward, chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), told delegates at the SmokeFree Liverpool conference that the pub industry needed the guidelines as soon as possible.

"We need to be able to get in our applications, which means we have to have a date for the regulations," he said. "We have told our industry to get a move on, but they can't do this until the regulations come through."

However he added that he thought the regulations would mirror the Scottish guidelines. "We expect them to be the Scottish ones, transferred into English law," he said.

On the subject of enforcement, he warned councils not to be over-zealous in their approach. "Don't come in heavy handed at the first point," he told delegates. "What has struck us in Scotland is the ease that the whole thing has been accepted."

Mr Hayward also attacked the proposed fines that would be implemented, which would see licensees getting fined up to £2,500 for allowing smoking on their premises, while a smoker being fined £50. He said: "It's unfair that the person trying to enforce the ban is so heavily penalised, when the offender is not."

He later urged councils to apply a universal policy with regard to all aspects of the ban, warning that the BBPA would defend pubs where it thought councils were applying an "unfair burden".