Cottesloe beach ban for smokers
Cottesloe beach could join Sydney beaches such as Bondi and Manly in banning smoking in time for next summer.
If the Town of Cottesloe's ban goes ahead, it would become the third WA council to make smoking on the sand an offence.
The Town of Cottesloe has yet to decide how the bans would be enforced and what the fines should be.
Under State Government laws introduced in 2009, smoking between the flags at patrolled beaches, including Cottesloe, is an offence but no wider blanket ban exists.
The cities of Joondalup and Cockburn have banned smoking on beaches since 2007 and 2008 respectively.
The City of Nedlands considered a smoking ban at Swanbourne in 2008 but did not pursue it.
Cottesloe wants a permanent ban on smoking at all the town's beaches, citing environmental, health and amenity benefits. A ban would require amending a local law, which it hopes to do in time for the 2015-16 summer season.
Cottesloe chief executive Carl Askew said exactly where the proposed ban would apply had not been determined.
He said council still had to decide how such a ban would be implemented and enforced but it was likely to be a combination of community education, warnings and fines.
Any change will go out for public comment.
Cottesloe councillor Sally Pyvis, who has led the push for the ban, said the health, environmental, social and economic costs of smoking on beaches was considerable.
She acknowledged the ban could be difficult to enforce but suggested no-smoking signs on the beach could at least act as a deterrent and give non-smoking beachgoers the right to ask others to "butt out".
Cancer Council WA director of education and research Terry Slevin said the dangers of passive smoking were well known and he welcomed the proposed ban.
"It comes down to an issue of civil liberties and progressively we've been moving into the area of having more smoke-free areas and that's to the benefit of the vast majority of the population," he said.
