Nick Hogan, landlord of The Swan, in Bolton, has defied the ban since it came into force on July 1.
While he warns customers they are breaking the law if they smoke, he doesn't enforce the ban, calling it `unprecedented state interference in private enterprise'.
Council officers have visited Mr Hogan twice. They claim that on each occasion he had `obstructed' them from doing their jobs, by asking them to leave. A council spokesman said Mr Hogan's actions contravened the Health Act 2006.
Officers have now invited Mr Hogan to attend an interview - a `preliminary requirement to any potential prosecution'.
The council said: "On two occasions Mr Hogan has obstructed our officers from doing their job and has asked us to leave his premises.
"His actions contravene the Health Act 2006 and we have invited Mr Hogan for an interview to give him a chance to explain his stance.
"These are preliminary requirements to any potential prosecution action we may take."
But Mr Hogan was unrepentant, saying he `wants his day in court' and would not alter his smoking policy.
One drinker caught smoking inside the pub has been issued with a £50 fine notice, but according to Mr Hogan the man is refusing to pay.
He said: "The council came in and I asked them to leave. They said that I was obstructing them. The man did not even tell us who he was."
Mr Hogan says he hopes his actions will lead to the new regulations being tested in the courts.
He said: "I want my day in court. The council has been pussyfooting around for three weeks now. It is a complete farce. This is about people's right to choose and my policy will continue."
As reported in the M.E.N., Greater Manchester's anti-smoking chief, Pat Karney, NHS director of Smoke Free Greater Manchester, is trying to get the pub closed down.
He said he would be writing to Bolton council to demand that its licence is taken away. Mr Hogan could be fined up to £2,500.
The council said it was `monitoring the situation'.
A spokesman said: "If non-compliance continues we will then take further action which would result in fines for his customers and prosecution for Mr Hogan." Tweet
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It is extreme to ban smoking in every establishment. The point of the new rules should be to provide havens for non-smokers like myself. But if some people want to smoke at a smoking pub, then that should be ok. Like many others, I would avoid the places, but I believe in live and let live. It's too dictatorial.
Nick Hogan bragged that he was going to defy the smoking ban for weeks before it came in, he should have had his licence removed on day one.
This land lord and the pub needs its licence revolking.End of story if he wont comply to the law then hes unfit to be a landlord .no ifs or buts .
I wouldnt describe him as an rebel just a bit daft... This guy will almost certainly not have a license for long.
I hope the idiot gets his day in court followed by a big fine and loss of the pub.
So who will report him formally to Bolton Licensing Committee? This can be done now under the recent licensing laws.
It is also highly likely that if he is taken to court over non-compliance with the smoking ban and found guilty that it will kick in a review of his licence. He could be regard as an unfit person to run licensed premises.
The only people who should be telling this landlord he can't allow smoking are non-smokers who want to use his pub. It's not the business of anyone else. Hitler would be proud of today's UK, with his army of deputies going round inflicting his will on everyone else. And don't bring up the subject of smokers inflicting their smoke on others, because I'm not advocating that at all. Merely a bit of freedom for those who've made their minds up they want to drink and smoke as they've always done. Just tell me which pubs are for smoking, and as a non-smoker I will avoid them. Nazism at its worst, I think. "I don't smoke, therefore no one else should, even if it doesn't affect me". That's the crux of the matter, and it's wrong.
why should this man act as the eyes of the law?.
he's done his duty as a publican, by informing the smokers they are breaking the law.
should he make a citizens arrest & risk being attacked or worse..
let the police enforce any smoking policy
Get the Pub closed down? This would be outside the legalisation as far as I can see. Getting the licence revoked from the Licensee is another matter. But I would expect a prosecution to be made first to prove that an offence is taking place. That then may be the end of the matter. Pat Karney would be better writing to request the Council do their job and stop making heavy weather of this.
Talking about this, there is more smoking in the street now. There needs to be consideration for designated no smoking seats in the City Centre. It will also help to get the message across (regarding health).
Smoking is NOT illegal. Ask the people who infest the House of Commons bars. This is a stupid bit of legislation affecting 15 million law abiding citizens and they should be catered for! OK,let's have smoking/non-smoking pubs because at this rate we will have speakeasies like the US prohibition era. Roll on Eliot Carney!!
He wants his day in court..... in 15 years time all his customers will want their day in court with him when they have Lung cancer through passive smoking
Although as a non-smoker I prefer a smoke-free environment, I do understand Nick Hogan's opposition to more and more nanny state rules that restrict without giving any choice.
Councils used to be seen as servants of the local population, but now they seem to be the enforcers for central government as well as imposers of their own rules, with instant fines for an increasing number of petty "crimes".
The government is becoming our lord and master instead of the agency elected by us to maintain a free and democratic society.
While we are supposedly happy to be the most spied-on society (over 4 million CCTV cameras) in the world, we should be wary about being encouraged to snoop and inform on each other, about the plan to bring in 90-day detention, about ID Cards and a national identity register which are quietly going ahead without any public discussion, especially when our government is asking the European Court of Human Rights to change Human Rights law to allow torture and ill-treatment in some cases.
There will be no sudden change from free society to police state that we can clearly see and stop. It is a gradual process. When we realise it has gone too far, it will be too late.
What will his next argument be? you can smoke weed in his pub or take drugs?.As a licensee he should at all times abide by the laws on the land open and close at the times alloted Etc. If he dosnt like the way the pubs are run he should get out of the licencee business..
I'm so sick of this. Have any of you 'anti-smokers' stopped to consider where the Government are going to get the revenue gained from the tax on cigarettes if smoking is banned? I agree there should be smoking and non-smoking pubs/clubs but just like smoking is up to the people which to choose.
the royal arms club in cadishead still let smokers smoke in side.
Ace glad you said business because thats what he is running and its upto him to run his business as he chooses. Nobody forces us to smoke or go into a place where you are allowed to smoke its called freedom of choice. Let the lad have his day in court after all its his BUSINESS and yes we have to be within the law. Are we going to start going around all the greasy spoon cafes next to make sure the deep fat fryer has had the oil changed because we all know if it is not changed regularly it becomes carconagenic - so beware all you cafes and tea shops big brother is out there. PS I am a non smoker.
Well done Nick, it was great being back in The Swan on 20th/21st July and enjoying the atmosphere of a " real pub ". Bolton Council and the rest of the Anti-Smoking Brigade can go to hell as far as I am concerned. I really wanted a "ticket" from the Smoking Gestapo to test out the law but they were nowhere to be seen.Back in Scotland now and stirring up the defiance here.As you said this is a UK wide fight and we are all united against the ban.
Once they have stopped the smoking for good, they will start on the beer and pork scratchings!
You are living in a nanny state where, in the future, you will have no decisions to make.
Wake up England, you invented democracy and you are throwing it away.
"An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
For those of you who believe the law is the law and there's no excuse for breaking it need to consider some if history's most revered figures, such as Emily Pankhurst and Ghandi (to name but two) who would disagree with you.
We didnt invent democracy it was the greeks ? the very first democracy ? And anyway what makes you think we have ever had a democracy? weve only had the african countrys to measure how much freedom weve had? i dont think making kids and women work down the mines 20 hours a day?? for the rich? where was their democracy ? In britain we have a funny way of looking at democracy..a bit skewed.
ace: no more skewed than democracy in ancient greece. They still had slaves. Democracy was for the few.
Britain invented the notion of parliamentary democracy - our working class were emancipated long ago - and look where it got us!
The Catcher, In the Rye
Hi mate i was just pointing out that we didnt invent democracy?and how we decided what democracy should be for .to con the people into beleiving they have free choice (which weve never had) and since new labour came into power it was amplified how little the people have a say in how our country is governed? Its time for massive change in britain our monarchy needs dissmantling its outdated and dosnt belong in the modern world? nobody should be born into privalidge like these people.Self proclaimed heads of state without being voted in ? WHAT A GREAT DEMOCRACY WE ARE..Its been a joke for centuries.I know ill get lots of stick from royal watchers ...
encase the pub in a 100 foot thick concrete cube and blast it into the ocean bed. its the only way to ensure the safety of the country.
The best way to describe the UK is a Democratically elected dictatorship. We get one chance i five years to vote in those who promise what we most want in their manifesto. Not that any party in recent history has actually DONE what they said in their Manefesto.
In modern times with the majority of the people having access in some way to either a PC or a TV, we could have a chance at a true democracy, where everything is voted for.
Press RED to vote
The smoking ban is a piece of unwanted and unjust legislation.
If non-smokers don't like the smell of smoke, fine, they can have a seperate no smoking area. In the same way, smokers can also have a separate smoking area. Why not? Why are non-smokers trying to impose their will on smokers? They will be laughing on the other side of their faces when the next thing to be banned is the thing that they like to do ...
There is absolutely no reason to ban smoking completely. A smoking area for smokers; a non-smoking area for non-smokers. Makes sense to me.
I want to smoke. Banning me from smoking in public places will NOT make me give up; the more pressure I am put under to give up the less likely I will be to ever give up.
If I were a pub landlord I would do the same thing. Stand up for my rights to run my business the way I want, to provide my customers with the service that they want. Tell a customer who has come to spend his money in my pub not to smoke .... madness, bad for business ....