A new campaign to help the struggling pub industry has been welcomed at a crisis meeting for the trade.
Industry representatives from North Essex, including the Braintree area, gathered at the Queens Head near Coggeshall yesterday to discuss how to challenge the blanket ban on smoking inside establishments.
They believe the Government legislation, which came into force in summer 2007, has seriously damaged trade, with Paul Lofthouse, who runs the Queens Head, describing the industry as being in “dire straits.”
They backed a new campaign called “Save pubs and clubs - amend the smoking ban” which was put forward by Simon Clark, the director of the lobby group Forest, which is a voice and friend of the smoker.
It is planned the nationwide initiative, which would be a coalition of different groups, will be launched in six to eight weeks with the aim of amending the Government legislation so there may be the option for pubs to be smoking or non-smoking, or have a smoking room.
Brendan Flynn, who owns Brendan’s pub in East Street and Club Eden in High Street, both in Braintree, was one of the 25 or so people who attended the meeting.
Afterwards he said: “Everybody there did support it and I thought it was great. It’s a step in the right direction to try and help the publicans.”
Martin Dockrell, director of policy and research at ASH, which campaigns to eliminate the harm caused by tobacco, said people “overwhelmingly” supported the smoking ban.
He said: “No-one wants to turn the clocks back to smoky pubs, not least because we know how harmful it is to people’s health.”
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