Vaping News

1-0 To The Villa

A customer complaint about vaping was dealt with in superb fashion by the Brandling Villa pub and (for some reason) North Tyneside Council

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Twitter user Barthula55 occupies that tiny corner of social media where people rant about things they don’t like or agree with and nobody ever pays any attention to them. They have no followers, nobody likes their posts – they are as invisible as their absent avatars. That is, until Barthula55 complained about vaping taking place at the Brandling Villa pub in South Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Barthula55 has previously attempted to take Labour MP Jess Phillips to task. Then the grumpy so and so attempted to educate people about a hitherto unknown property of all plastics. Then they got grumpy with a TransPennine Express customer, a Conservative MP, and a charity for a wheelchair basketball team.

Then they wrote: “@brandlingvilla has [sic] the displeasure of coming for food last week and realising you allow filthy vapers to vape anywhere they want without any consideration for people who don’t want to breath it in. Reported to HSE. Expect a visit. Disgusting.”

The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) is a UK government agency responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in Great Britain. Someone in charge of the Complaints Department is going to be slightly puzzled by this report.

Just to make sure that the big wheels were in motion, Barthula55 then tagged a local paper for North Tyneside and the North Tyneside council. There’s a tiny problem with this.

An absolute star at North Tyneside council took time to respond and pointed out that the HSE has no remit in this case as pubs are allowed to adopt their own policies.

Then they pointed out that Brandling Villa isn’t even in North Tyneside.

Following the exchange, Barthula55 deleted their posts (having understood what an absolute tool they’d been), meanwhile Brandling Villa expressed their thanks to the council employee: “Thanks for North Tyneside Council for backing us up against this absolute pipe.”

The exchange prompted a number of comments:

  • Steve Mac – “Expecting an extra salty dish on the next menu to be named after this helmet.
  • Charlotte Wilkinson – “Sure Richard Branson will be heading round to vape shortly...”
  • Keiran Ward – “This just makes me want to come in for a pint and pet some dogs even more than usual”
  • Daniel Jobling - “’Do I need to submit an FOI request?’ said not one person on Twitter who isn’t a complete helmet, ever.”

We think Brandling Villa’s exchange deserves applause and a plug for their business. The pub was has won many awards and is ranked as offering the 6th Best Burger on Tyneside [link]. The reviewer said: “If you want to visit a proper pub that has a huge selection of tasty craft beers, great atmosphere and some of the best pub grub you’ll ever find, then this is it. The burger and homemade fries is a thing of beauty. Newcastle burgers don’t get much better than this.”

It's a pub that currently serves award-winning food, a huge range of ale, welcomes dogs, allows vaping – and has a great sense of humour. Sounds like a great reason to visit the North East.

Please vape respectfully in pub situations – dial down those clouds, we need more not fewer pubs to allow vaping.

Resources:

  • The Brandling Villa, Haddricks Mill Road, South Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 1QL [website]
  • Brandling Villa Facebook – [link]
  • Brandling Villa Twitter – [link]
Dave Cross avatar

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV
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Dave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.

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