SUBMISSION BY KAREEN GILLESPIE, LOCHSIDE TAVERN

I have written this letter to highlight a few points I have regarding the Bill against smoking in public houses, hotels etc.

Firstly, we do not serve food in our establishment.

Second, if this Bill was passed we would not consider serving food.

Third, we would lose a staggering amount of customers and trade if this Bill is passed.

Fourth, we do not have a room separated by two doors and we could not accommodate this with the layout of our establishment.

Fifth, the proposed fines of £1000 per offence are very unfair. In an establishment which has an open bar and lounge area, with one person working on their shift it would be very difficult to keep vigilant when busy to ensure that any person did not light up a cigarette, especially in the toilet areas. We have had discussions with customers regarding this Bill. the customers who smoke have said that if smoking was banned in our establishment, `their local pub', they would not return. They feel their `Freedom of choice' would have been taken out of their hands.

We have non-smokers who have also discussed this issue with us. Their views are that they have a `good local pub' with a lot of friends (many of them smokers) and that smoking has never stopped them returning.

We have two smoke filter machines installed which help greatly with the extraction of smoke, and are cleaned on a regular basis,

We strongly disagree with this Bill, we feel our customers' trade will be greatly affected, which will result in loss of earnings, loss of staff, and potential loss of a great local public house.