Over a year after the no smoking ban was put into place, we’d like to know what you think of the ban and how or why it has affected your business.
Remember Gordon Williams in July this year? He was a painter and decorator who was driving down to his local shop to buy some tea bags after work, and was penalised and fined £30 for smoking in his own van.
Although Williams had finished work for the day and was sharing a van with a fellow smoker, he was pulled over by council officials and handed an on-the-spot fine for “smoking in his place of work”.
According to Williams, his van was simply “a means of getting from A to B” and although he paid the fine, he planned to appeal against it commenting: ‘I respect anyone who chooses not to smoke but I would also ask for the same respect to have the freedom to smoke in my own private vehicle.’
Simon Clark, director of smoking rights group Forest, said at the time: ‘This smacks of some jobsworth council official interpreting the law to the most extreme level.
“This surely is not what the change in the law was intended for - it was not meant to harass and persecute people going about their ordinary lives.”
Have you had a run in with the law since the smoking ban was put in place? Do you think it’s unfair that you’ve lost the right to smoke in your own vehicle? Or do you think that the ban is a great idea and will help your fellow colleagues to cut down on their bad habit? Tell us what you think.
