ENGLAND will go smoke-free in less than three weeks' time, but not everyone is happy about the new law.

Herefordshire landlord Tony Blows believes the smoking ban is not just unfair, but illegal.

Mr Blows, who owns the Dog Inn at Ewyas Harold, claims the ban poses a very real threat to the livelihoods of thousands of people and has promised to disobey the new law when it comes into effect on July 1.

He said: "You can look at any of the countries in which a smoking ban is active and find jobs have been lost.

"Ireland has lost around 1,000 pubs in the last three years and in Scotland, over 200 pubs and bingo halls have been shut. In England, it has been predicted that 3,500 pubs will be forced to close down and this really is not good enough.

"This is an unjust law and we are going to defy the ban, as will another 1,000 pubs around the country. I will do whatever it takes to keep my pub open."

The landlord is a member of the website freedom2choose.co.uk, a group set up to challenge the ban largely on the basis that by implementing the ban, the government is going back on promises set out in its manifesto.

Freedom2choose, with money raised from donations from its members, is to officially challenge the government's ban by instigating a judicial review, which Mr Blows believes will start within two weeks.

He also claims the government is considering putting back the ban's starting date to accommodate the findings of this and two other reviews.

Herefordshire Council environmental health officer Paul Nicholas said he thought the ban would be introduced in July and it would be enforced with minimum fuss.

"We will have two safety officers majoring in smoking and when they receive a call that someone is allowing smoking on their premises, they will go round, sit down with whoever it is, have a cup of tea and make sure they understand what the ban means," he said.

"We will make sure people are aware of the consequences and that for a landlord to be caught doing it repeatedly, it's probably going to end in a court case, although everybody will get one chance."