Andover Council Rejects Plan for E-Cigarette Center in Town

In Andover, UK, the council recently rejected plans to establish an e-cigarette center in the town, citing potential "adverse impacts" on the community.

Previously, Igor Furtado applied to the city council to open a center for e-cigarette use in unit 4 of the Bridge Street shopping center. Furtado said that the center would operate in a bar-like manner, including retail sales of alcohol and soft drinks, as well as e-cigarettes, serving as a cocktail bar.

The business application states that the company has no intention of selling any disposable e-cigarettes or any products containing nicotine. However, customers are able to purchase and bring their own e-cigarettes to use, with the option of flavors from high-end brands that do not contain nicotine.

Furtado stated that his company operates multiple locations with this structure and "never needed ventilation". He added, "Since the law does not require ventilation for smoking e-cigarettes indoors, we do intend to allow customers to smoke e-cigarettes indoors as part of our products and services.

However, local council planning officials expressed concerns about the lack of ventilation at the site and rejected the application.

In the report, the planning officials stated that "the application did not adequately demonstrate that the proposed activities would not have a negative impact on the comfort of adjacent properties due to noise. It also did not adequately demonstrate that sufficient ventilation could be achieved within the property to prevent the odor from vaping e-cigarettes indoors from adversely affecting the comfort of adjacent properties.

The environmental health department had previously expressed concerns about the potentially "unacceptable noise impacts" of the plan, especially regarding the suggestion of using doors and windows for ventilation. They added that "these suggestions pose significant noise risks to the comfort of community residents.