One year on: the Scottish smoking ban

Three-hundred-and-sixty-five days into the smoking ban, pubs north of the border are experiencing mixed fortunes.

The ban in Scotland has hit some pubs and clubs even harder than trade pessimists expected, according to the country¹s biggest licensee organisation. However, on-trade multiple operators, for example Mitchells & Butlers and Belhaven (now part of Greene King), have reported only minor damage to their Scottish pubs¹ drinks sales.

The Scottish Licensed Trade Association's (SLTA) chief executive, Paul Waterson, says independent commissioned research showed overall pub turnover slumped 11 per cent last year, a more serious decline than the organisation's own original estimate of seven per cent.

He told The Publican a combination of the ban and discount beer offers in supermarkets was driving many pubs to the wall.

He has warned publicans in England that even some of those pubs that "do everything possible" ­ for example enhance food business and provide smoking areas ­ are still certain to lose trade.

In Scotland traditional wet-led com-munity pubs are said to have been hardest hit, along with community-based social clubs. Bingo halls have suffered a wave of closures. Scot-land¹s growing pub leasing sector is also said to be under particular pressure.

Making the lease unworkable James Hickman, lessee of Scottish & Newcastle Pub Enterprises (S&NPE) McEwans Ale House, in the Newington area of Edinburgh, said last week that the ban had been "the major factor in making the lease unworkable" ­ as he prepared to wind up his business with major debts. "Besides the ban driving people away, you see people passing all the time with carryouts from cheap supermarket deals ­ they¹re the students who would be our customers, but who can now drink cheaply as well as smoke freely in their flats," he added.

S&NPE operations and sales director for Scotland, Ken McGown, said: "In addition to the impact of the smoking ban, for which we have sympathy with the lessee, there were a number of other factors which ultimately led to him deciding to move on."

Loyal customers​

"Some (S&NPE) pubs you would imagine would suffer have actually borne up due to a loyal customer base, and pubs with good food offers are reporting a positive response to the smoking ban," said McGown.

In Fife, some community-based registered social clubs have shut, while others have seen annual takings ­ and charity donations ­ slashed. Davie Nelson of the Coal Industry Social Work Organisation in Glenrothes, said:

"We're losing £1,000 per week, and two other clubs have closed ­ some pubs are in trouble too. Local charities will be getting only around half the usual amounts because of the ban ­ and a local wheelchair users' club has been forced to close for lack of money." In addition to falling sales, licensees around the country have been dogged by complaints about noise and litter created by outdoor smokers: a North-East councillor last year tried unsuccessfully to ban smoking at outdoor tables.

Trade organisations agree with many local authorities that enforcement hasn't generally been an issue. Waterson said: "The ban is working from the compliance point of view, because licensees have made it work, but we know pubs are closing; we know more are certainly going to close. There may have been winners from the smoking ban ­ some food-led businesses, and those with good outdoor smoking areas, were always likely to do a bit better ­ but I doubt even most of these have really done as well as they hoped.

"We were promised a massive influx of customers when smoking was banned ­ and it simply hasn¹t happened."

Keeping it in perspective​

The Scottish Beer & Pub Association, meanwhile, says it may be too early to say exactly how the ban will affect the development of the Scottish on-trade.

Chief executive Patrick Browne said: "The ban can¹t really be looked at purely on its own, or as relating to the figures for just one year.

"You also have to consider other factors, for example the off-trade, the increased awareness of alcohol issues, and the challenge of new legislation (Scotland¹s new Licensing Act); these are all likely to affect trade in various ways.

"But in general licensees go into the trade for the long term, and won't be put off by one particular problem."

But ­ like the SLTA ­ he criticised the Scottish Executive for failing, as he sees it, to adequately prepare local authorities on issues such as outdoor smoking shelters and pavement cafés, seen by many in the trade as a lifeline.

Alistair Don, an SLTA past president who owns the Doublet bar in Glasgow¹s West End, said: "The planning process was very awkward ­ they certainly didn¹t make it any easier for you.

"The best advice I got from an awnings company was Œdon¹t put anything up until you get permission" ­ and in the end I was lucky to be allowed three pavement tables which have to be cleared by 10pm. As it turned out, licensees here at least had the support of the Glasgow licensing board [which under Scottish law operates separately from the council] ­ their convenor Gordon Macdiarmid wants to encourage civilised open-air licensed amenities."

He added: "We're a long-established family business with a solid regular clientele, but the leasing trade, with all its overheads, must be having difficulties: many were definitely under pressure even before the ban came in.² In Dumfries, Max Houliston, owner of historic traditional bar the Hole I' the Wa', said: "We haven¹t seen any downturn in trade at all ­ in fact, our figures are up. People seem content enough to smoke outside."

But Glasgow-based nightclubs operator Donald MacLeod of CPL Leisure (Stavka, the Cathouse, the Tunnel) said his firm couldn't be alone in having taken a significant profits hit from the ban.

"We're down around 15 per cent, and that¹s with us doing everything to provide outdoor areas, stewarding for outdoor smoking, and the rest," he said.

"Everyone ­ despite what some may say ­ has lost some business.

I¹m for a ban, in the sense of restrictions on where you can smoke ­ just as they have in several other countries.

"But this blanket ban was always ridiculous, and also against civil liberties. It has caused nothing but confusion and hassle to people working in the night-time economy."