Last updated 20:14, Thursday, 17 July 2008

THE smoking ban is threatening the future of the Flimby Working Men’s Social Club.

The Chapel Street club is being forced to sell of land around it because of financial problems and last week staff hours were reduced and heating regulated in a bid to cut costs.

Secretary Jimmy Langley said the smoking ban kept smokers and non-smokers away.

He said: “Since the smoking ban we have been fighting closure. The non-smokers have been denied the right to a social pint or two without smelling like an ashtray, but when the numbers dropped, many non-smokers stopped coming in because of the lack of atmosphere. If this goes, the village has had it.”

Mr Langley said the club had been on the site since 1927, when it was a Miners’ Welfare and had been central to village life.

He added: “This club is not a village institute but a village institution. It is used by pensioners, the allotment garden committee, the church, mothers’ union and Phoenix club.”

The club needs to be refurbished and this could only be done if the former bowling green is sold off.

He said: “The club is not going to fill up again unless we have a change of direction. It is the only place people can meet up in the village. Without the help of a club union branch and the brewery, the centre would already have closed.”

He added this could mean unpopular decisions such as reducing hours.

He said the committee was now exploring every avenue to meet the needs of its members and to find ways of making it suitable for use by other groups and organisations.

That could include trying to encourage the smokers back by providing an easy access smoking area and reducing the cost of cleaning the beer pipes and reducing heating costs by consolidating the club into the downstairs area.

He said: “We have to do something. and the reason we are talking about it now is that It is a year since the smoking ban - and it has definitely not worked for us.”