Paul Waterson: Ban's left our pubs gasping for breath

Five years ago our pubs were generally full of life, had a great atmosphere and were just about holding their own against vicious price competition from the supermarkets. Although many had non-smoking areas and some had great ventilation, some thought that they were also full of smoke.

Scroll forward to today and we've very successfully got rid of the smoke, but at the price of losing many of our most loyal and valuable customers - and the pubs that went with them. In those five short years north Edinburgh and Leith has lost 34 pubs on its own and around 800 pubs have closed throughout Scotland. That's about one in eight and four times the pre-ban rate.

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We know that some of our bar staff's eyes don't sting, and their clothes don't smell the way they used to, but it is difficult to see how else we have benefited. We may get an occasional new face in the pub - but they are few and far between and cannot replace, emotionally or financially, the regular with his own place at the bar and a pint and a cigarette in his hand.

When smoking was banned indoors, we were told that this was a sign of a brave new Scotland that was leading Europe. Most other countries didn't agree. In the EU, only the UK and Ireland, among the cold rainy countries of the north, have such severe bans. In the south, countries such as Greece, Spain and Cyprus have followed suit - but what's the problem with smoking outside in lands of almost permanent sunshine and balmy evenings (even if the bans are enforced)? Most countries, however, chose a middle path between a total ban and allowing smoking everywhere.

These countries seem to have balanced any potential improvement in public health against the very real threat to those wonderful social and community centres, therapy providers, and entertainment hubs we call pubs.

They have considered how to prevent staff from being exposed to smoke and come up with the wonderful idea of smoking rooms - which are quite separate from the rest of the bar. They have even thought about bars that are owner-operated and so have no members of staff who could be 'involuntarily' exposed to tobacco smoke - and have exempted them.

Some countries, such as France, have allowed new smoking spaces to be built in the grounds, or even housed in tents. In other words, they have been flexible - and they have saved hundreds and thousands of pubs, bars and cafes from going bust.

We hear that loosening the ban in any way would be to throw away the huge public heath gains. Does this make sense? According to the latest Scottish Household Survey published by the Scottish Government, the proportion of smokers went down from 28.1 per cent in 2003 to 25.4 per cent in 2006 to 24.3 per cent in 2009 - in other words in the three years before the ban smoking went down by 2.7 per cent; in the three years after the ban by just 2.1 per cent. 12 per cent of pubs that have shut in the five years since the ban - licensees have been more affected than smokers.

No-one is suggesting that we go back to the old days. We know those have gone and many of our jobs have gone with them, but we can stop further destruction of one of our great institutions - the local pub - by looking to Europe and following their lead. No-one has to use smoking rooms unless they wish to. Even the vehemently anti-smoking US Surgeon General wrote "specially designed smoking areas inside a building can effectively isolate second-hand smoke", and a visit to Europe can quickly show that they work very well in keeping smoke and non-smokers apart. Equally, an exemption for small bars is hardly going to change the world.

Many pubs are happy with the ban, and wouldn't want to turn the clock back, and there would still be a huge choice of places for non-smokers to visit - but for some small pubs such an exemption would be a lifeline and an opportunity to survive in an otherwise very hostile environment.

The smoking ban was a bold experiment a few years ago. Had we all known then what we know now - that it would be the licensees doing the quitting, not the smokers - would it have been pushed through in the same way? Quite possibly; but common sense suggests that easing the ban a little will do nothing to harm the "health benefits" and may stop many more hard-working licensees from losing their livelihoods.

Paul Waterson is chief executive of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association