Spring sun eases Welsh smoke ban
The first hours of the Welsh smoking ban went smoothly this week for the vast majority of pubs across the country, with few problems reported.
Smokers and licensees were doubtless saved by glorious spring weather on Monday, which greeted the arrival of the big stub out.
Newly-erected smoking shelters outside licensed premises were made virtually redundant as the warm sunshine tempted drinkers out-of-doors.
But hosts warned that the first big test will come this weekend when customers flock to pubs during the Easter break.
"Drinkers were more than happy to smoke outside thanks to the weather," said licensee Allan Hayes of the Buck House Hotel, Bangor-on-Dee, Clwyd.
"It was a very quiet first day for us, but what I did notice when we closed on Monday night was how clean the inside of the pub looked!"
"There were no ashtrays to clean and very little litter to tidy up," he added.
Mary Flynn, of the Stag Hotel, Abergele, North Wales, said: "It's been an uneventful start, but we are mainly a food pub so it will be better for most of our customers."
Licensee of the Halfway Inn, Swansea, Karl Fitzgerald, who is a smoker himself, said he was in favour of the ban.
"I have put flowers on the tables instead of ashtrays and it has made the pub look quite different. I am hoping the ban may help me quit," he added.
Simon Clarke, director of smokers' lobby group Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (FOREST), said the Welsh Assembly had been lucky with the weather.
"In Cardiff the weather was beautiful and mitigated the effect of the ban for hundreds of pubs," he said. "But generally there are a lot of grumbles because there is still a substantial hard core of smokers and licensees who fiercely oppose the ban."
