New No Smoking Regulations

With the advent of the new ’Smokefree laws’ coming into operation during the summer. Travel West Midlands senior managers met with Wolverhampton City Council’s Food and Environmental Safety Manager Oliver Wassall yesterday to talk through how the smokefree legislation will affect bus transport in the City and across the region.There are still some ’final regulations’ to be confirmed by the Government but the new laws will become ’live’ on Sunday, 1st July.Phil Bateman Division Corporate Affairs Director said "We met with the City Council yesterday to talk through the changes that will take place when the legislation becomes live in July. It was a good meeting in which we were able to listen to the way that the City Council will enforce the new legislation when it comes to bus and tram services.We are pleased to note that all the arrangements that we are making with our staff and for our customers are positive and will bring benefit to everyone using our services. Our priority is to ensure that both staff and customers recognise that the law is changing and the tightening of the legislation will impact both on the bus itself and also on the office buildings and garages. We already prosecute people for smoking on our buses when we can catch them, but the process is very long winded and does not have the impact that this new legislation will have. With the new legislation passengers caught smoking on a bus by City Council enforcement officers could be subject to ’on the spot’ fines of £50."Councillor Pat Byrne, Cabinet Member for the Environment said "It will be the task of local authority environmental health officers to ensure that businesses in the city comply with the new laws. As part of our advertising campaign we are in the process of distributing information packs to key businesses in the city. I am delighted that a leading local business, such as Travel West Midlands, is working in partnership with us to help ensure that the Act is implemented effectively."

Published 2nd March 2007