Image via Wikimedia Commons / Geierunited
Popping out for a ciggy break in the Cambridge, Te Awamutu, Kihikihi, Ohaupo and Pirongia central business districts will become a thing of the past if Waipā District Council adopts a Smokefree and Vapefree Policy.
The draft policy is out for consultation and submissions close on June 4.
Submissions will be heard in August and council will consider the policy at its August 31 meeting.
Smoking while watching the children play in one of the council’s parks or playgrounds will also be outlawed.
The following public places would become smokefree in the district:
- All council-owned and/or managed parks and reserves (including council-owned playgrounds, skate parks, pump tracks, sports fields, camping grounds) and leased areas
- All bus stops and shelters
- All council-owned public toilets
- Council-owned or managed cycle trails
- Outside the entrances/exits of all Council-owned and operated buildings
- All public car parks
- Outdoor public areas within the central business districts of Cambridge, Te Awamutu, Kihikihi, Ohaupo and Pirongia
- All outdoor/footpath dining areas within the central business districts of Cambridge, Te Awamutu, Kihikihi, Ohaupo and Pirongia.
- Restaurants, cafes and bars with a licence to use the street pavement for their outdoor dining would need to make sure those spaces are smokefree and vapefree.
- All council-owned events and those receiving council funding or support would need to be smokefree and vapefree. Event organisers would be encouraged to share the smokefree and vapefree message leading up to, and at, their events.
But if adopted, the council will not “actively enforce” the policy, says chief executive Garry Dyet in a report to councillors.
Instead, the council will encourage the public to model and promote smokefree and vapefree behaviour in a positive manner which would encourage others to be smokefree and vapefree, he said.
“The aim of the Waipa District Council’s Smokefree and Vapefree Policy is to declare Waipā District Council-owned public places to be smokefree and vapefree.
“Council’s role is to reduce the incidence of smoking and de-normalising smoking behaviour in our public places; by so doing promote the Waipā District Council vision of ‘Waipā Home of Champions – building connected communities’.”
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