It seems you can't smoke anywhere these days...not even in the open air!

When Whipsnade householder Gordon Skelly spotted a poster telling smokers not to light up at his local bus stop, it really took his breath away.
He thought the pleasant-looking shelter had all the hallmarks of an outdoor smoking area which most pubs, forced to spend on new facilities when the smoking ban came in earlier in the year, would be delighted to provide.

The 63-year-old reckons over-enthusiastic jobsworths have taken the letter of the law too far by telling smokers they are breaking the law if they spark up while they wait.

The shelter outside the Whipsnade Park Homes estate is open to the elements on two sides, and one of the walls is made from wicker.

Mr Skelly thinks the design should make it exempt from the smoking ban – under the new rules, smoking isn't allowed in enclosed and substantially-enclosed public premises.

But the disgruntled sometime smoker doesn't believe the wooden shelter fits either of those bills.

After spotting the notice, he said: "I couldn't believe it. The front and side are completely open, so how you can call it enclosed I don't know."
The shelter belongs to Whipsnade Parish Council, and chairman Ken France said: "I measured this out myself. And it's more than half-enclosed. Therefore, by law, it has to have this notice.

Mr Skelly stressed that despite being a "part-time smoker", he has no problem with the ban itself, but thinks the rules have been wrongly interpreted.
"I just thought it was ludicrous, it's not that I'm anti the ban.

"How many of our pubs would love to have such a construction on their site to allow their customers their indulgences?"
Mr Skelly pointed out that the wicker wall contains a number of gaps which smoke can also seep through, and said that the warning poster was going too far.

But whatever the sign says, it won't stop the determined nicotine fiend. "It just means smokers have to take a couple of steps outside," he said.