When legislation banning smoking in public places comes into force in the UK on July 1, even cathedrals must have signs at the door warning people smoking is forbidden inside.Diocesan communications officer Canon Richard Pratt of St Cuthbert’s Church, Carlisle, said: ”You can imagine churches are very unwilling to put signs up because it is just so tacky. What planet have you been living on if you think it’s okay to smoke in church anyway?”
When the ban on smoking in public places comes into force it will be an offence not to display signs at all entrances to public buildings. Any place that does not put up the signs could be fined £200.
At Carlisle Cathedral preparations are underway to put up no smoking signs in time for the ban.
Dean of Carlisle Cathedral, Very Reverend Mark Boyling, said: “It’s been made quite clear that all public buildings are included so no negotiation is possible. We are told it can be a fairly discreet sign. Our hope is that it won’t offend people by having the sign there.”
Wedding cars and hearses will also have to display signs.
The crematorium and associated bereavement services, which are run by the city council, have been non-smoking for 15 years.
A Carlisle City Council spokesman said: “Buildings such as churches are also required to be smoke free, and as such are required to prominently display appropriate signage, though there is a certain amount of latitude in the design of such materials, ensuring the signage is sensitive to the setting it is displayed in.’’
The Rev Stephen Prior, the vicar of St Kentigern’s Church in Caldbeck, said: “Putting up signs seems a bit unnecessary.”
Church of England clerics say government requirements for "No Smoking" signs to be posted in the front of all churches, synagogues and other places of worship are an example of the "aggressive nanny state" in action.
Participants at a conference organised by the Association of English Cathedrals said they had never seen anyone smoking in church.
But a spokeswoman for the British Department of Health insisted on Friday that churches were public places and thus had to follow tough smoke-free regulations coming into force July 1.
She said most English churches haven't complained about the changes and that parishes in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were already displaying the signs.
"The smoke-free provisions in the Health Act, including those on no-smoking signs, were considered in great detail in parliament," she said.
"It is also important to remember that 26 bishops sit in the House of Lords, where the smoke-free legislation was debated."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce