19th February 2007

Izzy whizzy, lets gets busy as the Marston Inn goes no-smoking, Smoking ban good for business at Hook Norton's Marston Inn

Izzy whizzy lets gets busy and abracadabra the ashtrays are gone.

Magic circle member Nigel Davies who runs the Marston Inn, Marston St Lawernce, in Oxfordshire has called time on smoking at his rural pub.

But, this is no sleight of hand by Nigel and his wife Carole - the ban is for real and it has been good for business and good for the health of customers. The Marston Inn is the first in the Hook Norton estate to go completely smoke free and it is thought to be the first pub in north Oxfordshire to have voluntarily bought in a ban.

With six months to go before a total smoking ban in pubs is introduced in England on 1st July, licensee Nigel and Carole decided that now was the time to stub out smoking and end the fag of cleaning ashtrays and of having to change out of clothes that smelled of cigarette smoke.

Nigel Davies said: "We were a bit fearful, about what our customers would say, especially as some of them were hardened smokers.

"But since we introduced the ban in January - half of our regulars who smoked have given up, including one who had been smoking for over 50 years - and the rest still come to the pub.

"The pub has a much better atmosphere now, and the smoking ban has been good for business, as since we introduced it food sales have increased and customers say they can now really taste the Hooky beers.

" Hook Norton Managing Director James Clarke said: "The banning of smoking in pubs from July presents us with a once in a lifetime opportunity to market pubs to existing customers and new ones, as never before.

"We must now make our pubs appeal not to just the 25 per cent of people who smoke but the 75 per cent who do not."