SHEPHERD Neame is to spend £3million on "SmokeEasy" pub shelters before the smoking ban comes into force.

Britain’s oldest brewer, based in Faversham, says it will pump between £5,000 and £10,000 into many of its 370 pubs across Kent, Medway and the South East to create special areas for smokers.

Most of these areas - dubbed SmokeEasies - will be shelters largely open to the elements. SmokeEasies take their name from the Speakeasy, a place where alcohol could be bought and drunk during the 1920s Prohibition era in the United States.

The term came from a barman’s request to customers to be quiet and "speak easy".

Smokers may be made to feel equally embarrassed when they follow signs in the bar to the outside area such as a garden or backyard, the only area where they will be allowed to light up.

But non-smoking customers in a garden area may be annoyed by drifting smoke.

Jonathan Neame, Shepherd Neame chief executive, accepts that gardens might have to be divided into smoking and non-smoking areas. Shelters will be two-thirds open and need heating in winter.

"They will be anything from a canopy off the pub to creating an outside shelter to some form of perspex screen," he said.

"Clearly you are still open to smoke outside and it is an interesting point as to how people will react to that. The challenge for us is to make these areas have atmosphere, comfort and warmth whilst meeting the regulations of the Government."

Most outside smoking areas will need planning permission as many Sheps pubs are listed buildings.

Mr Neame is concerned that planning delays could hold up construction of SmokeEasies before the July, 2007 deadline and appealed to decision-makers to act quickly.

He predicted that the smoking ban would hit trade but not seriously. In Ireland, where a similar ban was introduced in 2004, some pubs had seen trade plummet by up to 20 per cent. But in New Zealand, sales had gone up by two per cent.

"There will be winners and losers," said Mr Neame. "We are not anticipating the level of the drop in Ireland."