Pubs 'must prepare for smoke ban'

A smoking ban will be implemented by next April

Northern Ireland's pub owners are being urged to be creative in using their outside space ahead of the introduction of the smoking ban next year.

Their governing body said it wanted to avoid a scene of "hordes of smokers" gathering outside bars lighting up cigarettes.

The ban will come into effect in all workplaces and enclosed public spaces, including pubs, from April next year.

Some bars are already preparing for the ban by changing their smoking policy.

The John Hewitt bar in Belfast's Cathedral Quarter has already started its preparations.

From this week, the air will be clearer for bar staff and people eating lunch.

This is in preparation for the smoking ban next year - by the time it comes in we will have facilities for smokers, but it will have a big impact on the bar David Moore The John Hewitt bar

David Moore, one of the duty managers, said: "We stopped smoking around the bar area for the health and safety of staff.

"Smoking has been stopped in the restaurant between the hours 12-3pm.

"This is in preparation for the smoking ban next year - by the time it comes in we will have facilities for smokers, but it will have a big impact on the bar."

Environment

Smokers who frequent the bar said it was a sign of things to come.

One regular said: "In nightclubs, where you have to go downstairs and outside, I don't see it working. But if they could arrange something (in bars), I as a smoker would be perfectly happy to go outside.

"I would never smoke around someone who is eating and I certainly wouldn't smoke at a bar where people have to work."

Smokers will be forced to use outside spaces

Another customer, who also smokes, said: "I used to work in a bar and I believe people in bars deserve to work in a non-smoking environment."

The organisation which represents licensed premises in Northern Ireland said one of the best things bars could do now is look into providing a space for people to drink outside.

The chief executive of the Northern Ireland Federation of the Retail Licensed Trade, Nicola Carruthers, said she believed it was vital publicans did this in good time, before the ban comes in.

"If people don't want their businesses to suffer unduly, then they really need to be thinking now about what outside space they have to use," she said.

"They have to ask if the space is licensed, do they need awnings, do they need to talk to planners, do they need to talk to environmental health, do they need to be talking to the Roads Service?

"What we are telling people to do is go to the courts and dig out copies of their old plans to see if they own any bit of footpath outside the front of their property and what do they own at the back.

"The last thing anybody wants to see are hordes of people standing out in an unruly fashion smoking out the front - it's not going to look nice for the city."