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EU patio heater ban to punish smokers

Thursday, 31st January 2008

UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage has attacked as “insane” a vote by the European Parliament to ban patio heaters used for outdoor smoking areas in pubs, restaurants and cafés – as well as in domestic gardens.

UKIP voted against a ban, but the Parliament approved it by 592 votes to 26. The move was prompted by Liberal Democrat MEP for the North East Fiona Hall. She claims the gas-fuelled appliances produce “vast quantities” of CO2 – despite the fact that UN climate expert Dr Eric Johnson says their effect on greenhouse gas emissions is “minimal”.

The European Commission has followed up the vote by saying it will be proposing legislation "as soon as possible."

Nigel Farage said: "Not content with devastating the pub trade with the illiberal and ill-informed smoking ban, these autocratic busybodies now want to make smokers stand in the cold and the rain.”

During the past year, UK pub and bar owners have spent more than £80 million on patio heaters, saying they must have them for smokers driven outdoors by the smoking ban. If the heaters are banned, says the trade, it could lead to a loss of business worth £250 million a year.

Trading conditions for pubs, after the smoking ban and the start of a market slowdown, are already as bad as anyone can remember, the BBC’s Business Editor, Robert Peston, reported recently.

Nigel Farage said:  "We are constantly being told that the Continental café culture is something to aspire to. But a ban like this will hammer the cafés of Brussels, Stockholm and Copenhagen just as surely as the pubs of Leeds and Sevenoaks."

Robert Feal Martinez, landlord of the The Carpenters Arms, near Swindon, said: "As a Publican I find it quite ironic that a European Commission agenda has created a situation in the UK where smokers have been forced out into the cold and now the European Parliament wants them to be subjected to inhumane conditions.

“Is it any wonder that the people of Britain want a vote on the EU Reform Treaty".

Mr Farage added: "What are the EU going to ban next? Central Heating? Shall we move back into caves? Surely people should be able to sit outside their houses in the evening without the EU granting them permission.”

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