The City of Melbourne has endorsed a proposal to make the city’s newest outdoor space Market Street Park a smoke-free area.

The new family-friendly park is part of the Collins Arch development and is scheduled to open in the central city later this year. The park features 1900 m2 of new open space featuring large lawns, water play, seating, and space for programmed events. The new smoke-free area runs between Collins Street and Flinders Lane, within the new park and adjacent footpaths.

Following extensive community consultation on whether the new Market Street Park area should be smoke-free, the results were presented to the Future Melbourne Committee on Tuesday 15 September 2020. After carefully considering all feedback, the Future Melbourne Committee voted to endorse a smoking ban in the area. Minutes of the meeting can be viewed on the Council and Committee Meetings page.

In addition to this, the definition of ‘smoking’ in the Activities Local Law 2019 has recently been extended to include e-cigarettes (commonly referred to as vaping) meaning the use of an e-cigarette in existing and future smoke-free areas is not permitted.

This supports our commitment to protect the community from passive smoking. We are proud to be creating healthy environments for people to live, learn, work and play.

The City of Melbourne will ensure the community is fully informed about the new smoking bans and will work closely with the community to promote the new smoke-free area.