Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-09-16 11:22:00 - Graham Ellis
"No Smoking".
That's the story at our training centre, and at Well House Manor too. But there's a further story that says "but these delegates and hotel guests are our customers and we provide them with a service that doesn't restrict them". A paradox; one man's freedom to smoke in the lounge is another's loss of freedom to enjoy clear air there. I was anticipating that the new smoking laws, passed in February 2006 and due to come into force next year would provide guidance, but I now read:
"Smoking will still be allowed in the home and in places considered to be homes, such as prisons, care homes and hotels.. Ah!
So It's our choice as proprietors. We want to provide for our customers, to give them somewhere they can smoke in comfort and whatever the weather. But we don't want to have our other customers holding theire breath every time they go through the lounge or come in through the front door ....
To some extent, the Jury's still out and we're investigating options. Options to provide a good, dry, easy to access smoking area that the smokers WILL use, and very much aware that if we fail on any of the three criteria - if it's poor, wet, or hard to get to, many people will take the easy option and smoke just in the entrance porchway, or in their bedrooms and set the alarms off.
It's been a "manor morning". What with the smoking, and with working our final details of which way all the doors open and how we want the locks programmed. I now know my RX (handle on tight, opening inwards) from my LO (handle of left, opening outwards)