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Cigarette vending ban could cost 150 jobs

Thursday, 15th July 2010

UKIP MEP Mike Nattrass has hit out at a proposed ban on cigarette vending machines, pointing out that such regulation will result in hundreds of redundancies in the West Midlands.

Already hit by the smoking ban, bosses at Wolverhampton-based Sinclair Collis, which supplies and maintains pub and club cigarette machines, face doomsday after the government announced plans to outlaw the cigarette dispensers.

Imperial Tobacco, the Sinclair Collis’s parent company has said it will seek a judicial review of the 2009 Health Act and accompanying regulations which are set to bring about the new ban.

Mr Nattrass will thrown his weight behind the objections by writing to Andrew Lansley MP, Secretary of State for Health, and Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, calling for the ban to be dropped.

“The public smoking ban was a major hammer blow to the UK’s struggling pub industry, as well as a blow against individual freedom of choice and forced many public houses to close,” said the West Midlands MEP – himself a non-smoker.

“UKIP proposed ‘smoke rooms’ where smokers could take their drink to an air conditioned and unstaffed room away from non smokers, where Landlords wanted this facility. 

“The new ban would destroy more livelihoods and put many people out of work. I now urge the Government to work with companies like Sinclair Collis in Wolverhampton and safeguard jobs.”

Kevin Pascall, managing director of Sinclair Collis, which employs around 150 staff, said: “The previous government has effectively handed us a notice of redundancy.

“This proposed vending ban is a draconian approach and will result in the loss of hundreds of jobs in the industry.

“No one has given us a solution as to what to do with the vending machines when the ban comes into force. No compensation has been offered to those affected by the vending machine ban.”

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