Friday, 8 July 2011

Street smoking ban: Gather at Stony Stratford

Recent enthusiasm for outdoor smoking bans, making it impossible for residents to smoke in the public highway, has reached Buckinghamshire, where town councillor Paul Bartlett has proposed a street ban in Stony Stratford.

Some licensees feel anxious about the proposal, but its ramifications go far beyond the pub sector. Blogger Dick Puddlecote plans a day out in Stony Stratford on Saturday, 16 July, three days before the proposal is made.

Dick invites everyone:
Anyone who objects to  Bartlett's proposed fussbucketing is welcome, and there is a Facebook group set up HERE for inviting like-minded friends. Although we're meeting initially in a bar, let's hope enough turn up to spill into an impromptu party.
Invite all you can – and go, of course, if you're free!

Edit: Dick Puddlecote has posted an update here. Things are gathering pace.

1 comment:

The witch from Essex said...

Stony Stratford Council nor Milton Keyne Council enjoy statutory powers to make byelaws (delegated legislation) to ban smoking in the open air. To do so would contravene the long established principles flowing from the case of Associated Provincial Picture Houses v Wednesbury Corporation [1947] 1 KB 223 The principle is that as a statutory body a Council is only permitted to do what it is expressly authorised to do by statute.

No statute permits a byelaw to be drafted for the purpose of prohibiting open air smoking so any decision made in favour of the proposal at meeting will be ultra vires ie: beyond their authority.