Englang Goes Smoke Free on July 1st.
Whats your views - Let us know.

Legal challenge to smoking ban
Campaigners for the right to smoke are launching a High Court challenge over the Government's smoking ban in enclosed public places.
The ban, which starts on Sunday July 1, covers virtually all enclosed public places including offices, factories, pubs and bars, but not outdoors or private homes.

The pressure group Freedom2Choose is planning to lodge papers at the Royal Courts of Justice in London seeking a judicial review.

The group says the ban amounts to injustice and erosion of freedom and personal liberties.

Their legal challenge is based on the contention that it violates human rights laws.

These include a breach of Article 1 of the First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees the right to the peaceful enjoyment of possessions.

Freedom2Choose also says the new laws are an "unjustifiable" infringement of the right to respect for privacy under Article 8 of the convention.

The group says: "This will be a legal test case with significant wider public interest

WELCOME TO SMOKE-ON-TRENT
Smokers are lighting up in Stoke-on-Trent despite the ban because of a bureaucratic blunder.
Officials are powerless to stop smokers, who are now flocking to the city's 400 pubs and bars, after council workers failed to get enforcement powers in time for the July 1 ban.

The council, branded one of the worst in the country by the Audit Commission, will not be able to enforce the ban until councillors formally approve it at a meeting on August 2.

Dax Robateau, owner of the Smithfield pub, said he spent £21,000 on outside shelters for smokers. Now posters in his bar declare "Welcome to Smoke-on-Trent".

He said: "We were all ready for the ban on July 1. It seems the only people who weren't ready were the council. I'm going to allow customers to carry on smoking until August."

A council spokesman said: "We don't have enforcement powers because Stoke has both a mayor and a council manager. We thought enforcement powers were delegated to the director of community services - but they weren't."

He added: "We'd no intention of prosecuting people in the early days. But where people deliberately flout the ban we can take action retrospectively."

Only one person was fined for breaching the smoking ban in the two weeks after it came into force in England on July 1, the government said on Saturday.Hamish Howitt, landlord of Blackpool's Happy Scots Bar, received the only fixed penalty notice for flouting the new law in England, a Department of Health spokeswoman said.
Council officials took him to court this week, accusing him of allowing customers to light up in his pub. He pleaded not guilty at Blackpool Magistrates' Court.
Figures released on Saturday showed that 97 percent of business premises inspected during the ban's first fortnight were smoke-free.
Inspectors visited 89,000 venues, including pubs, hotels and restaurants. Compliance was even higher in smoke-free vehicles such as taxis and buses.
Officials issued 142 written warnings to businesses that failed to stop people smoking. A fifth of those inspected did not have the correct no-smoking signs in place.
Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said the figures were comparable to the early days of bans in Scotland and Ireland.
"All the signs are that businesses and the public have taken the new law in their stride," she said.
The Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS), a public body that advises councils on how to enforce the law, said inspectors had dispensed advice rather than fines.
"(They) have carried out their work with a light touch, an even-hand, and a commitment to advising people rather than punishing them," said its chairman Geoffrey Theobald.
Anti-smoking charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said the ban was working because it enjoys public support.
A government-backed survey of 1,700 adults in May suggested nearly three-quarters of pub-goers support the ban.

Dont agree with the ban ?
Then sign the Freedom2Choose Petition - Now



http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/The_Big_Debate\?e

Join the Big Debate

http://www.cheetham.cc/index.php


www.freedom2choose.co.uk