mike ridgway is a packaging industry expert. mike will be in london this week to discuss with politicians about the planned restrictions, which it is feared could threaten jobs in bradford as well as other parts of the country. australia has brought new regulations that are expected to make smoking less tempting to young people. cancer research uk is motivating people in yorkshire to lobby their mps in favour of a same move. mr. ridgway is a former packaging executive of both chesapeake and weidenhammer. he speaks for six packaging companies that operate in nottingham, scotland, bradford, wakefield, and in the north west. he mentioned about 60,000 people were hired handling and producing products for the tobacco sector in the uk, and engineering, design, and support service companies. mr. ridgway is also a member of ilkley parish council. he was active in assuring weidenhammer developed its £10 million buttershaw located in bradford, factory, which hires about 60 people. he said 500,000 of the 800,000 responses that were received by the government were against to imposing plain packaging. campaigners fear that plain packaging would jeopardize jobs and also lead to a huge increase in fake tobacco products in the uk. according to hm revenue & customs, fake tobacco products currently costs the exchequer £3.5 billion a year, or £8.5 million a day, in the form of lost taxes. mr. ridgway said it is good to see that the government is carefully looking into advises and the aftermath of introducing plain packaging. mr. ridgway mentioned the packing companies are not opposing the regulation of tobacco products, but think it is better done through other steps such as education. he further said huge significance will be a consideration of the extra losses of revenue to the exchequer from the widelyexpected increased volume of forged products entering the country if plain packaging is introduced by the government. according to mr. ridgway, sophisticated packaging performs as a clear barrier for the copiers of branded products from entering in the market and the unforeseen consequences of the moves into this direction are massive. source of information httpwww.ilkleygazette.co.uknewsnewslocal10109442.cigarettepackchangeisathre…
