Capital pub first to ban smoking

THE first pub in Scotland to ban smoking will be asking customers to stub out their cigarettes from today.

The Lauriston Farm Brewers Fayre in Edinburgh has become a no-smoking building after managers decided that a total ban could boost their takings.

Landlords across the country have resisted calls by the Scottish Executive for a New-York-style ban on all smoking in public places for fear it would cripple their businesses.

But staff at the pub, which is part of a chain, say takings have actually gone up after they banned smoking in their adjacent restaurant and they expect the bar ban to have the same effect.

William Prentice, the pub’s assistant manager, said: "We decided to give it a try after we banned smoking in the restaurant and it proved to be very popular with our customers. We have had five members of staff who have already given up smoking since we banned it in the restaurant."

An estimated 1.2 million Scots smoke - nearly a third of the adult population. The country has the worst smoking record in the UK, with about 13,000 deaths a year from smoking-related diseases.

Simon Clark, a director of Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (FOREST) said: "We have always said that there’s clearly a niche market for non-smoking pubs and restaurants and certainly there is a need for this in a city the size of Edinburgh. This shows there is no need for government intervention."

But the anti-smoking group Ash Scotland and the British Medical Association have condemned Scottish politicians for caving in to pressure from landlords and smoking groups to rule out an outright ban.