It is midnight in a pub on the outskirts of town. Most of the drinkers have gone home. Music is playing in the background as the landlord pulls a pint of bitter. The doors shut half an hour ago but a handful of regulars remain.

The landlord knows them all by name and the barman knows their order.

A woman in her 20s lights a cigarette as she sits at the bar, calling in for a quiet drink on her way home from her job as a care assistant.

This is how pubs used to be but since the smoking legislation came into force one year ago tomorrow it is against the law.

Across the city, pubs like this are closing their doors, crippled by the effects of the ban and the cheap supermarket drinks prices.

Landlords are fighting to keep their head above water faced with a choice between bending the rules or going out of business.

Before long the traditional community pub could be a thing of the past.
One landlord, who allows his customers to smoke after hours, says: "I would say at least half of pubs like this are doing what we do.

"They have to. They're struggling as it is.

"They're not going to kick themselves into touch for the sake of a stupid rule.

"They're hanging on by their fingernails.

"If you stuck to the rules you wouldn't have a business.

"We can't compete with either the off-trade or the big boys up town.

"I don't like the word business – I run a pub.

"They are banning something that is a lawful act and it goes against the grain.

"I find it objectionable to have to stand outside my own pub to have a cigarette."

For more on a special report into the smoking ban, see Monday's Lancashire Evening Post.

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