Smoking area snub (From Salisbury Journal)

Smoking area snub

8:35am Monday 24th September 2007

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SMOKING regulars at a Ringwood pub will have to carry on braving the elements after a plan to build them a shelter was knocked back by planners.

New Forest District Council has refused planning permission for a covered shelter in the beer garden of Finn M'Couls, in Market Place, but manager Richard Brady said he's not giving up just yet.

"We will just have to look at it again and see if we can do something they will accept because we do need a covered area that complies with smoking regulations."

The application was for a single-storey structure, open on three sides, with a walkway leading out from the main pub building. But planners considered it would be intrusive and not suited to the conservation area in which the pub, a Grade II listed building, stands.

A report to the planning development control committee said: "The quality of spaces and its relationship to the rear of the building is awkward and substantially out of character.

"Accordingly, the proposal causes significant harm to the setting of the listed building and because of its highly public views, would adversely affect the character and appearance of the wider Conservation Area." Mr Brady, who has run the pub for the past nine years with his partner Sandra Arend, said they had also hoped to put in a disabled toilet as part of the work and to combine it with a complete re-fit and facelift for the pub.

The ban on smoking in any enclosed public areas, introduced in England this summer, means pub goers are now a familiar sight on the streets outside pubs and clubs and many are looking at ways to keep customers happy while keeping within the law.

One way is to put up a shelter like the one proposed at Finn M'Couls, which has a roof but is open on three sides, which means it is not classed as enclosed'.

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