Sark landladies fume over ban on smoking

SARKEES should be free to decide for themselves if they want to visit a pub that allows smoking inside, says the landlady of the Mermaid.

Dorothy Taylor (pictured), who has run the pub since 1954 but whose family has owned it since the 1920s, responded after the island's Medical Committee published a report asking Chief Pleas to ban smoking inside public buildings.

In 2008, the committee conducted a survey on the issue and the majority of pubs and restaurants have since implemented a ban on smoking of their own accord.

The Mermaid and the Maple Bar, at the Island Hall, were the only two pubs where drinkers could smoke inside.

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