Pubgoers in Stoke-on-Trent will be able to light up inside their favourite watering hole without fear of prosecution due to a council blunder that means it has no powers to enforce the smoking ban until August 2.

The blunder took place because the city council thought the powers were delegated to a department head. 

In fact they were not, because the city, which has 400 pubs and bars, is run by an elected mayoral system. 

A council spokesman said: “We believed the enforcement powers were delegated but we found they were not. This is unfortunate.'”

However, the spokesman said the council never planned to prosecute smokers in the early days of the ban, merely to educate and advise them.

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By Daniel Thomas

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