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| Bury Free Press, 17 February 2006 |
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| Smokers were this week given the cold shoulder by a massive Parliamentary vote in favour of a total ban on smoking in public - and the move was welcomed by many in west Suffolk. |
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| However, West Suffolk MP Richard Spring and Bury St Edmunds MP David Ruffley voted against the legislation, which outlaws smoking in private clubs, bars and restaurants. |
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| Landlord at the Rose and Crown, in Bury St Edmunds, Tony Fayers, also had reservations and said he believed the ban should have covered lunchtime food service only. |
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| "Then we could go back to being a good, traditional pub, smoke and all," he said. |
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| Mr Fayers said this week that smokers were still welcome and he was making arrangements for a heated yard area once the ban comes into effect. |
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| Mr Spring said: "It seems illogical to me. If people want to belong to a private club and smoke in that private club and make arrangements for segregated areas, they should be allowed to do so. |
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| "Smoking is not illegal. This is intrusion which is a step too far. |
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| "More people will now smoke in their homes and who knows what the impact of that will be," he added. |
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| Mildenhall Social Club said it would have been satisfied with a partial ban. |
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| "Most of our customers are smokers and, as such, do not welcome the ban," said Silva Manels, stewardess licensee of the club. |
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| "I've already had customers tell me that they would rather stay at home where they can drink and smoke. But a lot of people are happy with this decision." |
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| Mrs Manels said she expected the club committee to introduce a ban next year. |
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| The Angel Hotel, in Bury, has been a non-smoking venue since January and said it did not see any significant change in business as a result. |
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| The ban is to be imposed on all enclosed public areas, excluding care homes, hospitals, prisons and hotel bedrooms. |
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| Any venue found to be in breach of the ban would be liable to to a fine of up to £2,500. |
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| West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury, is already a non smoking zone. |
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| The Strategic Health Authority for Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridgeshire and cancer charities have also backed the move. |
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| What you think... |
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| Martin Baylis, 34, Landlord of the Nutshell Pub, Bury. |
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| "I am worried that the ban might affect business, but if it is a blanket ban it will affect everyone else as well. |
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| "At least people will be able to breathe properly, because it can get very smoky in here in winter because it is too cold to go outside." |
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| Stephanie Drake, 44, Norwich"A ban would stop me going into my local pub because I do enjoy a drink and a cigarette. |
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| "Food should be served separately, outside an area where people can smoke and drink." |
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| Daryl Fuller, 31, Bury |
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| "I have just stopped smoking and I am looking forward to the ban, because it is hard at the moment to go into a pub and smell cigarettes and have a drink and not smoke." |
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| Mary Caine, 54, Bury Market stallholder |
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| "It should be down to the individual businesses to make a decision. |
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| "Some people who smoke don't mind working in a smoky atmosphere. Something like this can't be imposed in order to make more people give up - they have to be willing to give up in the first place." |
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| John Sheppard, 63, Bury |
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| "We are going to find everybody smoking in the streets and there will be so many fag ends lying around. |
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| "We should go back to the old days in pubs where you used to have a public bar, a snug and a smoking bar." |
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| Lisa Evans, 20, Barmaid in The Grapes Pub, Bury |
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| "The Grapes is mainly a drinkers' pub and more than 90 per cent of our customers are smokers. I lived in Italy for seven months and it's no smoking over there and people just deal with it. It's weird to come back to a smoke-filled pub. Smoking and drinking go hand-in-hand, it's what people do and what they're used to." |
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