SMOKING LAWS LARGELY IGNORED

Dear Sir, I HAVE just returned to England after a summer visit to the apartment my wife owns at Betlem near Colonia St Pere. On our visits to Majorca, we always take the Bulletin to brief ourselves on what is going on across the island. But reading the Bulletin on Thursday, August 17, I almost choked over my cornflakes. You carried an article in which several Majorca trade associations claimed that 80 per cent of bars, restaurants and cafes are complying with the new law on smoking in restaurants, which requires separate non-smoking and smoking areas. They must be joking if our experiences are anything to go by! My wife and I mainly eat in restaurants near where we live in the Arta, Colonia St Pere and Betlem areas - but also in other towns on the east side of the island. We find it quite rare to find any establishment which complies with these laws. We can only think of two at the moment, the Acuarium restaurant near the main square of Colonia St Pere and the Els Vivers cafe on the Colonia seafront, both of which comply with the law. They are excellent friendly establishments we would warmly recommend to your readers. I remember reading in the Bulletin last year that the island authorities said they would gradually step up enforcement of the law as time passed. But if anything, the reverse seems to be happening. We could name you two other restaurants where no-smoking and smoking area signs were put up after the law was introduced and then taken down again. Perhaps things are different in Palma and the authorities haven't yet got round to visiting the more distant parts of the island. It's time they did. A law which is not enforced and which is so casually ignored is bad law.