Nanny State Britain - No smoking outside a pub.

A TOWN is set to become the first in the UK to ban smoking OUTSIDE pubs and cafes.

Landlords and owners will lose their £250-a-year licence for drinking on pavements if anyone lights up.

Under the new regulations, smoking will only be allowed outside in private beer gardens.

The hard-line new rules could be adopted by April in Barnsley, South Yorks. But the move has sparked uproar among licensees whose trade has already fallen under the ban on indoor smoking.

Publican Paul McNicholas, chairman of the town centre Pubwatch scheme, said: “I feel so strongly about this I’d be prepared to go to court.

“Having an outside area has compensated me since the smoking ban. The new guidelines could be the difference between bars surviving and not.”

The proposal, drawn up by the town’s environment department, says: “If on three separate occasions customers are witnessed smoking, the licence will be revoked.”

Environment committee head Roy Miller said consultations were still taking place. He said: “We are awaiting responses.”

**Gone are the days when people were free to do as they please in this nation, now each activity has to be monitored by the state - for our own good of course.

The puritans in government both national and local won't be happy until smoking - a still legal activity - is made illegal and driven underground.

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