City embraces smokefree laws

Inspectors have found very little evidence of people in Hull breaking the new smoke-free laws, which were introduced on July 1.
Council environmental health officers have visited more than 1,000 premises in the city, including pubs, cafés and shops, to make sure people are not smoking in any enclosed public places.
The team has received less than 10 complaints.
“People have been very compliant,” says Trevor Todd, of the council’s environmental health team.
“To have had hardly any complaints about such a wide-ranging piece of legislation is unusual.”
The handful of complaints came from a factory, an office, a shop and a few pubs. Officers will be keeping an eye on those premises, with a view to issuing verbal or written warnings if there are any further breaches.
“The main problem we’ve found is that people don’t know which signs they need to put up in their premises,” adds Trevor.
“Publicans we’ve spoken to have said business is either unaffected by the new laws or has gone up.
“Generally it has been well-received and people are enjoying the clean air in the pubs.”
Meanwhile, council planning officers say they’ve been busy dealing with applications from pubs to build outside seating areas for customers.
The law states that people can smoke in public places provided the space is not more than 50 per cent enclosed.