Nearly 100 complaints have been made to Bradford Council over people flouting the smoking ban in the six months after its introduction.

Ninety of these allegations relate to premises, while seven were complaints about smoking in vehicles, such as company cars used by more than one member of staff.

As a result 89 written warnings were issued by environmental health experts at the Council. In addition a lack of no-smoking signs saw two £200 fixed penalty notices being handed out and one prosecution is pending.

The city centre's Markaz Restaurant and Shisha Lounge is the business at the centre of the trial which is due to begin next Thursday.

The charges owners Shabbir and Syima Mer Ali face include two of failing to stop customers smoking shisha pipes and the third is over a failure to put up no-smoking signs.

The Centenary Square restaurant opened in October 2005 and provides a lounge for fruit-flavoured tobacco in hookah pipes to be smoked. The ban introduced in July prevents any smoking in enclosed spaces in England.

But the businessmen believe, along with those behind the national Save the Shisha Campaign, that they should be exempt on economic and cultural grounds.

Mrs Mer Ali said: "It's not that we want to break the law or make things difficult. But there are things happening at national level.

"We have invested a lot of money in Bradford and as a business we could not stop the shisha, then start it up again if the law were to change. It would make the business unviable, so we are trying to expand.

"We now serve alcohol and hope this will expand our customer base."

Mr Mer Ali will be arguing "reasonable excuse" and is calling on those behind the Save the Shisha Campaign to help them in what could be a test case.

Many believe shisha smoking is less harmful than cigarettes because the tobacco quantity is smaller and the smoke is filtered through water. But earlier this month Egyptian scientists found it poses a greater health risk and smoking 25 grammes of tobacco through a shisha is equal to smoking 60 cigarettes.

John Blanchfield, the Council's environmental health manager, said of the figures relating to the legislation: "Since July 1, 2007, we have carried out 835 inspections of premises relating to the smoke-free legislation which revealed 96 per cent compliance with no smoking requirements and 90 per cent compliance with signage.

"We have received 90 premises-related and seven vehicle-related complaints alleging contraventions resulting in the issue of 89 written warnings.

"We have continued to monitor premises where it is alleged that offences are continuing.

"So far we have issued two fixed penalty notices for lack of signage and one prosecution is pending for allowing smoking."

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