Owner Pat Carragher, from the Lobby Bar in Victoria Street, originally made the move to ban cigarettes in September in support of the city's campaign to become smoke free. But since the venue opened on the former site of the Expresso Exchange, Mr Carragher, uncle to Liverpool FC centre-half Jamie, has done a complete U-turn on his policy. Mr Carragher said: "It's felt like I've been committing commercial suicide. "We know we've got a good product here and yes, it does take time to establish a new clientele. "However, our no-smoking policy has meant that we cannot offer all of our guests freedom of choice when they visit us and this has proved a major obstacle in getting the business to generate the kind of income stream levels we had hoped for on opening." Mixed groups of customers has proved an issue that has been especially difficult to overcome. He added: "One particular problem is that, if a group of six people come in and one person in the party smokes, the whole group want to leave because that one person is prohibited from lighting up." The Lobby Bar began trading six weeks ago after a blaze of publicity echoing the city's council's sentiments on a smoke-free Liverpool. However, the economic practicalities have proven such that Mr Carragher has been forced to back down on the policy which has proved very unpopular with guests despite, he claims, their enjoyment of the food, drink, and welcome on offer. He has finally decided that enough was enough after frequent occurrences of groups leaving when a small number wanted to smoke, and he has now decided to open the bar without restrictions. Mr Carragher added: "Until the council's measure is in force as a widespread policy, I cannot champion this very worthy cause alone. It's just not financially viable." The Albany Group also operate restaurants under the same name in Crosby and formerly in Old Hall Street. When the policy was first introduced, problems were displayed almost immediately and the strength of feeling has not died down. At the time, Mr Carragher said: "Some people have literally choked when I told them they couldn't smoke in here. "I'm not surprised at some of the reactions we've had from smokers who want to light up with their coffee. "We had similar reactions at our Albany restaurants when we introduced the policy there." Meanwhile, Rigby's in Dale Street banned smoking for a week, but also reverted to their old permissive policy, although the Ring O'Bells, in West Kirby, is permanently no smoking. The Latin Quarter, in Birkenhead, has divided its bar to accommodate smokers and non-smokers, while four of the five bars at The Head of Steam, at Lime Street station, are no smoking. Liverpool council is attempting to create smoke-free work places across the entire city. ¦ MORE advice on giving up smoking is available at www.bhf.org.uk/smoking, or by calling the BHF Advice Line on 0800 169 1900. | 
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