Ratepayers set to cough up to keep council's smokers dry

Ratepayers will foot the bill for a $2500 smoking shelter for South Taranaki District Council workers.

The tobacco users at the council's headquarters have apparently been causing too much pollution for non-smokers and need their own outdoor refuge.

Council management has decided to spend $2500 on the shelter, which will be located in the rear corner of the carpark behind the administration building.

The council employs about 70 people in this building and about 20 smoke.

Currently there is no outdoor segregation of smokers and non-smokers. All staff wanting to sit outside the kitchen, have the use of common picnic tables, under a small roof.

According to one worker, on still days smoke from cigarettes rises and goes into the building through windows open upstairs. There is not enough room at the tables to separate smokers and non-smokers and the former tend to hog the space to be close to the butts disposer attached to the building wall.

Communications manager Gerard Langford says a new storeroom was already planned in the carpark rear corner and it was decided to attach a lean-to shelter to this for smokers to use. The shelter would not have been built otherwise.

Smokers will have to make a 30m dash to it on rainy days.

Segregating the smokers will give the non-smokers exclusive use of the sheltered picnic tables area outside the canteen door.

Mr Langford says the changes are being done "in accordance with our smoke-free policy. We are enhancing our outdoor area for the majority of our staff who do not smoke. As a responsible employer, we are providing those who do smoke - even though it is discouraged - a safe shelter which is some distance away from the main building. This is so our non-smoking staff can go outside and also have their windows open without having to be subjected to secondhand smoke."

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