Bradford pubs are "sitting on the fence" before they decide on a food versus smoking choice.

They want to see how the industry reacts before making a decision which would affect their own customers.

In the meantime they will continue allowing it, with most already banning it in dining areas, said Dean Loynes, chairman of the Bradford Inner City Licensing Association.

One chain, Mitchells & Butlers, has already said the Government's plans to ban smoking in English pubs that serve food could backfire.

The company which runs pub chains All Bar One, Harvester and O'Neills said the ban could have "adverse unintended consequences" with pubs choosing to stop serving food and retain smoking.

The chain welcomed the staged approach to the ban with four years to prepare and a wide consultation process.

A spokesman said: "The enforced specialisation between food and smoking risks commercially incentivising more pubs to remove food and retain smoking throughout, other than at the bar."

Mr Loynes said above all pubs had to have a responsibility to their employees.

"Everyone knows smoking is bad, they have done for years. But this ban is about litigation and the fact that soon people may start suing if they work in a smoky atmosphere and the Government has to be seen to be doing something about that," he said.

He said he believed 75 per cent of people going out on a night in Bradford enjoyed smoking. And Bradford did not have the luxury of a customer base where pubs could say yes or no to smoking. "We shall be sitting on the fence until it becomes law. If it does become law then we shall have to follow it or a licensee could lose his licence." He said most pubs in Bradford already operated a smoking ban in dining rooms and pointed out that traditionally pubs had always had smoking rooms.

M&B wants the plans changed to allow clearly segregated smoking and non-smoking areas within pubs, saying: "We believe this would better achieve the Government's health objectives. The Department of Health says a ban on smoking in pubs serving food was "the best way of balancing the rights of smokers and non-smokers."

Guinness-owner Diageo has said it had seen a drop in sales of the drink in Ireland since a smoking ban was brought in there.

But research has shown that infrequent visitors to pubs would be more likely to drop in for a pint if a pub was non-smoking.