Smoking ban - missed opportunity

A Castletown commissioner says the Island missed a great opportunity in not implementing a smoking ban earlier this year.

From July 1st, there’s been a UK-wide ban of smoking in public places, although the same legislation doesn’t come into effect in the Island until the end of next March.

Next week, the Department of Local Government, in partnership with the Department of Health, is running seminars to prepare business employers and managers for the new legislation.

Experts with experience of how the ban has worked further afield will speak at the seminar.

However, commissioner Tony Mansell said great savings could have been made if the Island had introduced the ban at the same time and jumped on the publicity bandwagon.

At their monthly board meeting, fellow commissioner Barbara Anderson said while she was anti-smoking, she had some sympathy for smokers in the way the legislation had been introduced and areas with a proper extraction system should be created.