Seeing Sense Over Smoking Fines

I'm a strong supporter of the smoking ban. Coming home after a night out smelling of ashtray and having your clothes pockmarked by cigarette burns thanks to the flailing arms of drunk smokers in nightclubs was never particularly pleasant. And for workers having to inhale noxious fumes every night in pubs and clubs it was even worse.

However, some things can go too far, and when people are penalised for lighting up when sitting in their vehicle alone, that is the case. The point of the ban is to protect people from inhaling passive smoke- if people aren't present to inhale smoke passively, then why should the smoker be fined?

Thanksfully, it has been reported in today's Irish News that a woman in Armagh has successfully appealed a £50 penalty for lighting up in her car. Lynda Wright won the case against Armagh City and District Council, which had fined her for smoking in the workplace i.e. the car she used to conduct driving lessons. However, there was no one in the car with her at the time, so the only person forced to breathe poisonous gases was her.

Sometimes it seems that legitimate government policy is pished to the extreme by jobsworths who end up undermining the whole point of the exercise. Hopefully now council officials will target those who actually do pose a threat to others with their smoke, and leave alone those who want to endanger their own lives in the privacy of their own car or van when there's no one else present.