THE ban was guaranteed to change the smoking industry for better or for worse when it was introduced two years ago. Jo O’Donnell has met with doctors and landlords to see how the rules have affected smoking – and drinking – habits across the North East

TWO years after smoking was banned in bars, pubs in the North East are reporting huge losses in custom and alcohol sales.

Across the country pubs and clubs are calling time and closing at a rate of 50 a week.

And now the full impact of the change has been felt, landlords say they have been let down over promises non-smokers and families would pour in to their clean-aired taverns.

The smoking ban came just months before the economy peaked, then came the recession damaging sales at a time when supermarkets are offering more cheap drink offers.

Barmaid Carla Lagan-Brown, 36, from Whitley Bay, works at the Magnesia Bank pub in North Shields.

She said: “The ban has directly affected sales in a negative way. The intake of families and non-smokers is no more than normal. We actually used to get more customers in before the ban.

“There is nothing wrong with having designated smoking areas and it should be down to proprietors to decide what they do in their own pub.”

The Beehive Hotel in Newcastle’s Cloth Market – where most of the customers are smokers – has suffered since the ban was introduced, because it does not have the space to provide an outside sheltered area for people to smoke.