Pub Opens Smoking Research Centre
TO the Cutting Edge pub in Barnsley, where landlady Kerry Fenton has turned the venue into a “smoking research centre”.
According to The Smoke-Free (Exemptions and Vehicles) Regulations 2007 states that a “smoking research centre” could be introduced if the building has a separate room and no through bar.
Pub mice must first fill in a questionnaire about their smoking habits before passing through Ye Olde Petrie Dish.
Says Fenton:
“Before our research centre opened we were lucky to get 10 people in at a weekend and we were struggling to survive. It’s certainly given business a shot in the arm and it’s all in the name of research, legal and above board. On Friday we had 29, on Saturday 31 and on Sunday 46 customers in the tap room.”
Or Tab Room, as it has been renamed.
Fenton says she asks smokers to drop 50p in a charity box for a donation to cancer research.
According to vested interest group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) The UK Treasury earned £8.0 billion in revenue from tobacco tax for the financial year 2005-06.
The average tax take on a packet of cigarettes ranges from between 75 and 90 per cent of the total price.
So smokers pay an extra 50p to the medical profession.And drinking smokers cough up the most, literally.
Smokers and drinkers are a godsend to a struggling economy.
Says Fenton:
“I am collecting all the questionnaires and keeping them safely. I hope they can be used by academics in universities and colleges who are interested in studying the effects of this law.
“I am a non-smoker but I believe in the freedom of the individual. There is no good reason why people should not be allowed to smoke.”
Well, there is a good reason: it’s bad for your health and the health of non-smokers around you. The other good reason is that Government enjoys banning things.
Simon Frow, Barnsley Council’s head of Regulatory Services, tells the Mail:
“The Cutting Edge is quite clearly not a research or test facility and as such is not exempt under the legislation quoted as an attempted ‘get out’ clause. Therefore, the law requiring it to be smokefree applies and we will be enforcing it.”
At no small cost to the taxpayer…
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Posted: 13th, May 2009 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
