Fairfield City - The New Model Council

Fairfield Council Doesn’t Like Spitters or Smokers

A park along the Fairfield railway - no spitters welcome.

I came across this interesting article by The Sunday Telegraph. It talks about how some New South Wales councils – naming both Fairfield and North Sydney councils – are passing new draconian rules where non-smokers are banned from drinking in outdoor smoking areas in pubs and clubs.

In order to enforce the bans, some councils are even forcing licensed venues to hire bouncers to enforce the bans, costing them tens of thousands of dollars a year. Fairfield Council was dubbed one of the harshest by The Daily Telegraph and as one of the two known councils to be employing the tactic when approving development applications from premises wishing to comply with the NSW laws. The outdoor spaces are being built so that they comply with the total indoor smoking ban at licensed premises that is expected to come into effect July next year. However, the state laws do not specifically exclude non-smokers nor ban drinking in outdoor spaces.

This begs the question of whether Fairfield Council is stepping past the line by imposing its own rules beyond the State Government’s legislation.

Mount Pritchard club Mounties' application for a development plan for a 40-person terrace left them with a notice saying:

“The outdoor terrace area shall be used for the exclusive purpose of patrons smoking. A security guard shall conduct regular patrols within the terrace area at all times to ensure that the terrace is for smoking purposes only […] there shall be no bar service or consumption of food within the terrace.”

Basically, if you are a smoker, you are not allowed to eat or drink while in the outside smoking area. Also, if you’re not smoking, you’re banned from the smoking area too because apparently passive smoking is not on either.

posted by Thao @ 3:19 am