SMOKING outdoors will be outlawed along entire streets in Frankston City Council is preparing to impose blanket bans along three busy open-air shopping strips, including opposite the train station. Lighting up in the designated exclusion zones during the planned six-month trial could cost defiant smokers fines up to $110.Should smoking be banned in public places? Vote in our poll and have your say in the comments below Frankston Mayor Christine Richards said the bid to banish cigarette smoke from streets would probably upset some people, but the health benefits were worth any flak. "We want to make people think twice about the way they conduct themselves in the public domain, and who they are affecting," she said.
"There are a huge number of deaths from tobacco in Victoria each year, more than from alcohol and traffic accidents and illicit drugs. We want to do something about it." Cr Richards said the hefty fines would be imposed by council officers, but details were still to be decided. Victorian laws already ban smoking in pubs, cafes, shopping centres, gaming venues and workplaces, on some beaches, on covered train platforms, and in cars carrying children. The council has voted to run an education campaign and consult the community before starting the trial in September. Cr Richards said the proposed laws were a glimpse of the future for Victorian smokers, and she hoped other councils would adopt similar measures. But Alistair Wardle - the only one of nine councillors to vote against the trial - described the move as "a bit extreme". "My main concern is that it is an infringement of civil liberties," Cr Wardle said. "It's getting trivial, booking people for smoking on the pavement. It's open space - if people see someone smoking, they can walk around them."Cr Wardle said he feared the rules would "create aggravation and annoyance" among smokers, would be difficult to police, and would simply shift smokers and their litter elsewhere.Local pharmacy worker Shelly Puddy said she doubted tobacco addicts would take much notice of new laws."I don't know if they'll stop for anything," she said."It would be nice to not have to breathe in a cloud of smoke as you walk along ... but I wish the council luck in making it happen."Trader Jenni Le said the smoke-free zones - two malls and the western side of Young St - were "a bit stupid"."It seems a bit silly to ban it on one side of the street and not the other. Aren't the smokers going to cross the road?" she said.Newsagent Vasilis Aroutzidis welcomed the proposed bans."I notice the smoke when I walk through it, and I am a smoker. It must be bad for non-smokers," he said.A report by council staff said the bans would be complicated and noted community concerns about over-regulation."Smoking is a legal activity and people who smoke are not criminals, nor are they undesirable individuals to have in commercial precincts," it said.

Frankston as I know is full of druggies and crims anyway...

I hear you bass.

I'm one of those rare smokin' fisho's who carries a portable ash tray.

If only others would follow suit!!

NC

ban smoking everywhere but on private property I reckon

Makka I take your a none smoker, why should people be banned from smoking, it is just unfair for us who pay extra taxes for smoking anyway so surly we have a right to smoke in public too.?

I was fishing @ Frankston Pier today, my first time in a year, and first time since they "rebuilt" it.