THE effect of the smoking ban in Witney's pubs is now beginning to bite with loss of trade.

But there are other factors, including cheap alcohol on sale in supermarkets and steep rises in the cost of energy.

Two pubs in the town - The Plough, in High Street, and Court Inn, at Bridge Street - are also still closed after suffering in last July's floods. One pub, the Butchers Arms, in Corn Street, is on the market, while at another pub, the Red Lion, also in Corn Street, landlords, Paul and Lesley Wakefield, have had enough, and are retiring to Turkey.

Mr Wakefield told the Gazette: "I predict you will be seeing more pubs closing in 2008 and 2009 than ever before. The margins have fallen dramatically over the past 30 years, there's less to pay all the bills with."

The chairman of the Witney Licensees' Association, Danny Patching, is a non-smoker, but says figures are beginning to show that the ban 'has not been good for the trade'.

He runs The Bell, at Ducklington, and said this week: "There is not a great big army of non-smokers coming in to replace those we are losing. Nationally, the figures are that we are eight-and-a-half per cent down on trade since last July. Obviously, there are some pubs which do well with food, who are not so badly hit. But smokers were the backbone of many pubs, and I suspect many are now getting cheap booze from supermarkets, and sitting at home."

Derek Honey, who has written a book on the history of Witney's pubs, is a fierce critic of the ban in the letters columns of the Gazette.

Mr Honey, of Queen Emma's Dyke, Witney, said: "Fifty pubs are closing each month in Britain. Most of them are blaming the smoking ban for loss in trade. It will happen here in Witney and West Oxfordshire, just like everywhere else."

The ban came into effect last July, and, while some pubs have put up special smoking shelters, customers at others have to go out on to the streets.

Lesley Semaine, who runs the Royal Oak, in the High Street, is also the chairman of the town's Chamber of Commerce, as well as secretary of the Licensees' Association.

She said: "I've been 22 years in the town, and this is the first time I have lost out on trade in the November and December period. Smoking is definitely a major factor. It didn't show up too much in the summer, but now it is having an effect. People won't go outside on cold, windy days in winter.

"I keep in touch with all of the town's licensees, and the general feedback is that it is definitely hitting most of us."

Source: Witney Gazette