Smoking RSS feed for the Smoking tag
found 10 stories.
News
Bloxidge Tallygraph 30 Apr 10
The Tallygraph’s attention has been drawn to a major ash problem which has probably had more impact on Bloxwich than the famous Icelandic volcano of recent air-rage repute!
Concerned local student Josh Williams of the ill-fated Sneyd School, Bloxwich was recently incensed to find a heap of smokers rubbish on and around the pavement and bushes outside Bloxwich Hall, not long after the school had an assembly visit from guests from Walsall Housing Group, Walsall Council and two PCSO’s concerning litter and fly tipping in the area…
News
Express & Star 18 Feb 10
Almost 200,000 illegal cigarettes have been uncovered following raids in the Black Country and Birmingham including on Thursday when 9,550 mixed brand cigarettes were seized from a shop in Caldmore Green in Walsall…
News
The YamYam 11 Feb 10
Having been told by Walsall Council to pull down a smoking shelter, Gala Bingo in Wednesbury has responded with revised plans for the structure at St James Bridge in Park Lane.
The 50ft by 20ft shelter, complete with a gaming machine, sound link and a button to press if the smoker wished to call “house”, is situated in the car park. But the Development Control Committee at Walsall Council decided that the shelter should be removed because it was: “detrimental to the character and appearance of the area and safe manoeuvring in the car park.”
Gala Bingo built the shelter as a response to dwindling trade caused by the smoking ban which has resulted in low attendance and the closure of bingo halls across the country. But now the company has re-submitted plans to reduce the size of the structure which, it says, involves only relatively minor works.
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In an unrelated Employment Tribunal in Birmingham, a Willenhall man has been awarded £24,000 for alleged unfair dismissal after he was sacked for smoking outside the gates of his firm`s premises. Supervisor Peter Goody worked for 17 years at Evans & Reid Alloys Ltd of Coseley and was due to be made redundant. He claimed that the company sacked him to avoid redundancy payments. He was fired for “gross misconduct” for smoking outside the factory during breaks in his night shift. The company cited their no smoking policy and the fact that warning signs had been put up inside the factory.
News
The YamYam 4 Feb 10
A businessman who stored over half a million illegally imported cigarettes at his Bloxwich warehouse has avoided a custodial jail sentence.
Alex Rolls, 29, of Rochcester Croft was handed a 32 week sentence suspended for two years at Wolverhampton Crown Court. He was also ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work and pay £5,000 in costs.
In October last year, police were led to The Bed Warehouse in Bloxwich by an anonymous tip off where they found 57 pallets of Gold Classics cigarettes destined to be sold on the black market. The cigarettes had been imported from overseas and so over £89,000 in customs duty should have been paid.
Mr Rolls initially denied any knowledge of the contents of the boxes and claimed he was storing the pallets as part of a business venture but eventually admitted evasion of cigarette duty. The warehouse has closed
down and Mr Rolls in now unemployed.
News
Walsall Council 27 Jan 10
Customers and staff at a number of pubs in a Walsall district have been unlawfully smoking inside the premises. Walsall Council’s public safety officers and the police staged a series of visits following complaints from members of the public…
News
Sophie Cross B'ham Mail 4 Jan 10
Midland students are gambling with their health by using pipes to inhale tobacco under the illusion that they are less dangerous than cigarettes, health campaigners have warned…
News
Adam Aspinal Mercury 13 Dec 09
Toxic cigarettes smuggled into Britain from Russia are freely available on the streets of the Midlands, despite warnings that they could kill. The fake fags, exposed by the Sunday Mercury last week, are on sale at shops in the Black Country…
News
Adam Aspinall Mercury 6 Dec 09
Toxic cigarettes smuggled into Britain from Russia are being sold to Midland school children for as little as forty pence a packet. The dangerous bootlegs, branded with the name Jin Ling, are twice as strong as normal fags and could contain industrial chemicals – including asbestos-lined Chinese drywall…
Business news
Birmingham Post 11 June 09
A new study shows smokers are costing employers in the West Midlands up to £173 million every year through ‘fag breaks’ and sickness…
News
Express & Star 8 Apr 09
St Francis Social Centre in Mill Road has been told it cannot create a smoking shelter – due to fears that its church-going customers would be too noisy for neighbours…