Taxi Driver Online

Birmingham Evening Mail

April 20,

Taxis go smoke-free.

Hundreds of cabbies agree to voluntary ban ahead of July 1 deadline

BYLINE: Jane Tyler

THE smoking ban may be more than two months away, but hundreds of taxis and private hire vehicles in Birmingham are already cigarette-free zones.

More than 1,600 cabbies in the city do not allow smoking in their vehicles, even though the law does not come into effect until July 1. They have signed up to a voluntary agreement drawn up by the Smoke-Free Birmingham Coalition as part of its countdown to the national ban.

There are around 6,100 hackney carriage and private hire drivers operating in the city. Of these, 1,600 have signed a form stating they will not smoke in their cars, nor will they allow passengers to do so.

Each driver signing up to the scheme receives stickers and posters they display in their vehicles. As from July 1, all taxis must be smoke-free zones as they are designated as workplaces under the new legislation.

Details of the voluntary ban were outlined to members of the city council's licensing committee. They heard cabbies had been targeted for the early ban because most of them were men over 40 - the group most likely to suffer health problems due to smoking.

Last month the city council announced 100 officials were being trained up to police the national smoking ban. They will be authorised to enter premises undercover to photograph and film smokers before hitting them with pounds 50 on-the-spot fines.

Their chief targets will be hotels, nightclubs, betting shops, working men's clubs, bingo halls, restaurants and clubs, which face fines of up to pounds 2,500 if they do not enforce the ban.

The city council has been given a pounds 650,000 anti-smoking grant from the Government to spend.
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So a quarter of Birmingham's drivers neither smoke nor allow smoking in their cars - and that's news?

Sounds like the council trying to makes something out of the reality of life for years.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

I would say in my manor that's more like three-quarters.

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IDFIMH