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Swindon pub and club owners under fire again

Fri 5th Feb, 2010 • Swindon Advertiser

Swindon pub and club owners say banning revellers from smoking in their beer gardens will totally devastate trade.This may mean partygoers coming into the town later at night or boycott the scene all together in favour of drinking and smoking at home, they say. It follows Health Secretary Andy Burnham’s bid to extend the ban to busy open-air areas. Last night Helen O’Gorman, the co-owner of gay club Pink Rooms, said: “It would be absolutely catastrophic for us.We spent about £5,000 fitting out our beer garden in March 2007 when we knew the smoking ban was coming in on July 1 that year.A lot of places did the same and this ban could be devastating.The non-smoker has the choice on whether they stay inside, where as the smoker doesn’t.The smoking ban and the credit crunch has already damaged the pub trade. To also ban people from smoking in the outside areas would be ridiculous.”

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