Just a year ago, all pubs in England followed Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland by calling time on smoking on the premises. In one fell swoop, pubs became free of the smoke and fug created by cigarettes, pipes and cigars. Tables and bars are no longer covered with ash fallen from overflowing ashtrays and everyone, both staff and customers, is now breathing more easily.

Those of us who enjoy eating out in a pub garden, or on the patio, however, face a completely different scene. No longer is the great outdoors clean and smoke free. Indeed, there are times when a thick cloud of tobacco smoke hits you the moment you enter the garden. It's particularly dense when you are sitting in small walled pub gardens that tend to trap smoke very effectively.

Then there are the smoking dens erected without walls, which legally allow smokers to puff away while under cover - sadly some of these unsightly 'temporary buildings' are being placed in front of pubs, thus spoiling the look of the place and allowing stray smoke to waft over visitors entering the building. So all is not perfect yet. But members of the Campaign For Real Ale are delighted that a smoke-free atmosphere inside a pub now improves the pleasures of eating and drinking. One of the Camra slogans reads "Visit the pub and now really enjoy your beer". Proper appreciation is always difficult in a smoky atmosphere, as smoke has a detrimental effect on both the aroma and palate of good beer. They go as far as to say that now we can breath again, smell again and taste again, everything in the pub will be better and customers can enjoy matching specific beers with the dishes they select.

Nevertheless, not everything is rosy. According to Camra's research, an average of 56 pubs are closing every month, which is not good news. Some are converted into private dwellings, others into shops or offices, while some are actually flattened to release land for housing estates.

It's a sad fact that many pubs are now worth more when sold as a private dwelling and are often quite deliberately allowed to become run down, so that this change of use is possible. How easy it has become for failed pubs to be seen as victims of the smoking ban, when more sinister motives are sometimes in place.

I am lucky enough to visit and review pubs in both South Oxfordshire and West Oxfordshire, and I find it quite easy to spot a pub on the decline and ripe for change. They are the pubs that exude that 'dead-failed' feel as you enter the door. Often staff don't appear to serve you for some moments and customers are reduced to making banging noises on the bar to gain attention.

I visited just such a pub earlier this week. It lacked that welcoming sparkle. The table mats laid ready for lunch had a dated look, and it was some moments before someone shuffled out from the back to ask what I wanted. One look at the menu indicated that most items listed had arrived frozen and would be reheated by kitchen staff who dared to call themselves chefs. There was certainly no warm friendly welcome and when I did attempt to eat the special of the day - which I was assured had been cooked on the premises - I wished I hadn't. Added to this, on ordering one of my favourite real ales, it arrived flat and lifeless and certainly did not come with the foamy, creamy head for which it is famed. If this pub becomes a statistic and is converted into a private dwelling, it will certainly not be because of the smoking ban. The cause will be ineptitude on the part of its licensees, who have failed to understand the basic concepts of keeping a happy, well-ordered and welcoming pub.

Or is it being neglected deliberately? When this pub fails, as inevitably it will, people may shake their heads and blame it on the smoking ban, whereas there could be a more complex motive for letting it run down.

In complete contrast, I visited the White Hart in Wytham recently on a glorious sunny day and was made welcome in such a warm and professional manner that I felt at ease immediately. My colleague had assured me that this was one place where we could take advantage of eating in the sunshine without being smoked out.

He was right. We sat in the patio area and there was not an ashtray or a cigarette stub to be seen. Customers were respecting this attractive outdoor area and seeing it as an extension of the dining areas inside. Because the sun was shining, and our food and beer were untainted by smokers taking advantage of being outside, both my companion and I left feeling we had experienced an old English inn at its best.

On another occasion, while venturing out into the Cotswolds to pay homage to war poet Edward Thomas who wrote the popular Adlestrop, I lunched in the garden area of The Fox Inn, Lower Oddington, which made no concessions to smokers either. This too proved a delightful experience.

Another of my favourite pubs, The Plough Inn at Finstock, run by Joe McCorry and Martin Range, has a specious two-acre garden abutting the pub. Smoking in the garden is therefore not an issue. Indeed, this pub is now going from strength to strength. Joe says that the smoking ban has not been a particularly bad thing for food-led pubs such as his. In fact, food sales at The Plough have risen dramatically over the past year.

One other pub deserves a mention. On visiting the Chequers in Watlington in May, expecting it to be the happy, buzzing place I'd visited some years previously, I was alarmed to discover it was being run in a very disappointing way. However, it has now been taken over by Haydn Hughes and Mandy Conder (pictured above). Together they are breathing life back into the place, which they are determined will be as successful as their previous pub, the Crown Inn, Sydenham.