English pubs 'better placed' for smoke ban
English pubs are better placed for the smoking ban than their Scottish and Irish counterparts but must prepare now, says trade chief.
Scottish and Newcastle's director of national sales Les Murphy told the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers Annual Conference he genuinely believed England will be ahead of the game.
He said: "English pubs have greater provision of food, more smoking areas, and have benefited from knowledge of the bans in Scotland and Ireland."
"More importantly there's a greater feeling that we are ready for it"
Murphy said he hoped councils in England would learn from north of the border where "confusion is rife" about how to interpret the laws on smoking shelters.
Don't just look at this as a smoking strategy use this as an opportunity to assess your business offeringScottish & Newcastle's Les Murphy.
He said he had visited pubs in Scotland, one where you can stand outside and smoke until 9pm, and one where you can do the same until 11pm.
He said he had visited another pub where you can smoke but not drink outside and one where you can drink outside but not smoke.
Murphy said pubs need to prepare and stressed the need to "over-communicate" their smoking strategy.
"Tt's important that staff know where customers are going to need to be sent to smoke, how long they can be there, whether they can take drinks outside or just smoke outside," he said.
He added: "It's also important to bring the local community to pubs to see what you are doing to accommodate the ban."
He advised English pubs to learn from the Scottish and Irish bans where venues which had changed their offering to include lunches and early morning coffee and those which had built outside areas had flourished.
He said: "Don't just look at this as a smoking strategy use this as an opportunity to assess your business offering," and concluded, "most importantly you have to start the planning now."
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