While most Hills restaurants that are on council land already are smoke-free, with a successful council ban coming into force in 2011, other western Sydney councils have struggled to have diners butt out when dining alfresco.
Parramatta Council had an interesting battle - bringing in a much-debated ban in 2011, only to overturn it in 2012 following a concerted campaign by Church St restaurants.
That battle went all the way to the Land and Environment Court, which ruled that while council had the right to ban smoking in outdoor dining areas on its land, there were shortcomings in how it was instigated.
That led to council over-turning the ban, knowing that the NSW Government intended bringing in a far-reaching ban two years later.
In areas such as Fairfield and Auburn, with an even higher smoking population than Parramatta and Hills, the ban is going to hit hard, especially in Middle Eastern restaurants where water pipes are a big part of their business.
Data from the South Western Sydney Local Health District shows that 17.7 per cent of people in the region smoke, compared to 16.5 per cent across NSW.
Mustafa Krich, owner of Parramatta’s Armani Restaurant in Church St feared he would have to lay off staff with the drop in clientele.
He said that cigarette smokers could walk away to smoke but people could not take the water pipe away with them.
According to information provided by NSW Health smoke from a water-pipe, like all smoking products, endangers the health of smokers and of others exposed to it and the toxins are not filtered out by the water in the pipe.
Other Parramatta restaurants and cafes also predicted that they would lose valuable smoking clients who liked to sit outside with a coffee during their work breaks.
“The smoking ban will be disastrous for us - we will lose 80 per cent of our customers,” Oliver Cheaib, owner of the Coffee Emporium in Church St (off Macquarie St) told WSBA.
“Many of our customers come here to have a coffee and a smoke. Very few non-smokers sit outside.”
Carlos Mikhail from La Roue Cafe just down the road echoed the same sentiments, predicting an 80 per cent drop in trade.
“”And it will mean many smokers will smoke more at home, around their children,” he said.
John Wehbe from Lime Cafe in Phillip St Parramatta has only four outdoor tables, but they have a high turnover, and are popular with construction workers on a break.
He said smokers would be forced to smoke in back alleys away from dining areas.
A few Parramatta cafe owners suggested councils, with backing from the State Government, could reduce rents on outdoor dining space to compensate them for loss of trade.
NSW Health Director of the Centre for Population Health, Dr Jo Mitchell, said there was no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.
