Commissioners Ban Lower-deck Smoking
Page 32
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A BAN on smoking in the lower 1-1 saloons of double-deckers operated by the Northern General Omnibus Co.. Ltd., and the Sunderland District Omnibus Co., Ltd., has been imposed by the Northern Traffic Commissioners. Their ruling was given at Newcastle upon Tyne last week, when Northern General had 118 stage licences renewed and Sunderland District secured 19 renewals.
The chairman, Mr. J. A. T. Hanlon, said representations had been made over a number of years by various bodies, and last year Sunderland District Trades Council sttbmitted a petition about smoking in buses.
For Durham County Council, Mr.
I. W. Rennie said the council merely sought accommodation for non-Smoking passengers. He submitted that under the 1930 Road Traffic Act the Commissioners could make this a condition on any stage licence. Following the lead given by the Government, the council were trying to reduce air pollution, particularly in buses. They felt that people should be able to avoid the risk of cancer if they wished to, and they also wanted to dissuade young people from heavy smoking, Mr. F. Illingworth, for the North East Federation of Trades Councils, pointed out that lower deck passengers usually included the physically handicapped, the aged and infirm, babies in their mothers' arms and people with heart and chest complaints. There were ample medical reasons why smokers should be prevented from "imposing their irritant fug on fellow passengers."
Mr. J. L. R. Croft, for the companies. said they had open minds in the matter. However, irrespective of the Commissioners' decision, they intended to display prohibitive notices on their lower decks if a census at present being taken proved that most passengers favoured the ban.
But he added: "It would be ridiculous to impose such a condition on licences held by the applicants when other operators' vehicles, running over common routes, were pot so restricted." He suggested that if the ban were necessary it should be imposed generally in the Northern Traffic Area.
Giving the decision, Mr. Hanlon said he did not think it entailed hardship for the general public to restrict their smoking to the upper decks of buses.
"We are satisfied that a case has been made out for some trial of a restriction of this sort," he said.