The smoking ban, for England at any rate, is due to come into force on 
1st July (see <http://www.smokefreeengland.co.uk/> for more details.

Now, what I'm wondering is this. How will the new law affect bus 
shelters? (Or to be pedantic, bus passenger shelters - as Mr Alexander 
once said, they've never built a shelter big enough for a double decker.)

The law will ban smoking in "enclosed" and "substantially enclosed" 
premises. The draft regulations state that: "Premises are substantially 
enclosed if they have a ceiling or roof, but there are permanent 
openings in the walls which are less than half of the total areas of 
walls, including other structures which serve the purpose of walls and 
constitute the perimeter of premises."

Now, there are many different designs of bus shelter. Some are little 
Wendy houses, notably in rural areas, with four walls, a doorway and a 
couple of windows. That sounds like "substantially enclosed" to me. Some 
are basically a back wall with a cover projecting from it on the 
cantilever principle (I presume, not being an engineer). That sounds 
like an open structure to me.

But the majority are along the lines of a back wall, a roof and two side 
walls, which may or may not extend the full length of the roof. I'm 
thinking of this type - 
<http://www.trueform.co.uk/media/products/popup_Piccadilly_1.jpg>.

Is that "substantially enclosed" or not? Will anyone give a monkey's 
anyway? Is it OK for someone to smoke if they step outside it and the 
smoke still drifts under the shelter?

This may have come up already in Scotland of course - what happens 
there? Have there been fights at bus stops yet?
-- 
Joyce Whitchurch, Stalybridge, UK
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