Licensees' reaction

Gerry Murray

Newmarket Inn, Nottingham

'I don't think the Government has considered it will cost a lot to keep the streets clean after people go out for takeaways and throw the litter on the floor. It'll also mean a rise in taxes too if people cut down on smoking and the number of people drinking in pubs falls.'

Geoff Hutchings

White Hart Inn, Buckfastleigh, Devon

'I stopped serving food six months ago in anticipation of the smoking ban. I wanted to test the water and I'm doing really well on wet sales at the moment. I had a few complaints at first, but there are two other pubs in the area that serve food. We have Camra (Campaign for Real Ale) meetings in here too and we always did more wet trade than dry.'

Richard Lawrence

Holman Clavel Inn, Culmhead, Somerset

'We're going to have to ban smoking even though it's quite an even split between food and drink. We open in the afternoon and we get quite a lot of farmers and builders that come in here and smoke, so if they stop coming in we'll have to close in the afternoon and lay off the part-time staff.'

Geoff Holland

Holly Bush Inn, Salt, Staffordshire

'We won a Food Pub of the Year award so we'll instantly ban smoking. Three-quarters of the pub is non-smoking anyway so it won't have much of an effect. I welcome it to be honest because it'll iron out people complaining about smoke from the smoking area drifting over. But I sympathise with wet-led pubs, it's going to be hard for them.'

Kevin Armes

The Rose Grower, Nottingham

'My trade will pick up because I don't serve food anyway and a lot of pubs round here are dry-led so I'll pick up all of their smoking trade. I think trade on the whole will drop if smoking is banned but here I think it may increase.'

Carol Holden

Spring Inn, Rochdale

'It would have been better if they had banned it across the board, but it doesn't seem like they have spoken to anyone on the ground. Policing the situation is going to be very difficult. How are bar staff going to keep an eye on everyone? And all it will take is one person who's had too many to start trouble when asked to put a cigarette out. I think lots of licensees will end up letting people smoke anyway.'

John Ullman

Red Lion, Coleshill, Buckinghamshire

'I'm not against a partial ban but there's no flexibility with this option. I've spoken to the regulars and they say they'll remain loyal and just go outside and smoke but it's going to break up their evening. I don't know a village pub in the country that'll be able to survive if they give up food.'

Peter Robertson

Devonshire Arms, Brighton

'Are crisps classed as food? We've got to wait and see what the details are going to be. There's two private members' clubs around here and it's disgusting that it's not a level playing field. We're looking at becoming a private members' club just so we can abide by those rules and then we won't be affected. It would have been fairer to impose an out and out ban.'