Anti-Smoking Petition

A local trader has denied swearing at or harassing two Peninsula Health workers while they were gathering signatures for an anti-smoking petition. At a Frankston Council meeting last month, Cr Colin Hampton introduced a rescission motion to overturn the ruling that smoking be allowed in Frankston's alfresco dining areas. The council had already banned smoking in many central Frankston streets. Before the meeting, Peninsula Health workers had asked people to sign postcards that said 'I love a smoke free Frankston'. These signed postcards were brought to the chamber by Cr Hampton in support of his motion. Cr Hampton was the only councillor to vote in favour of the motion. After its failure, he referred to Glenn Cooper of Cooper's Patisserie in the Shannon Street Mall. Mr Cooper had strongly pushed for smoking cheap cigarettes to be allowed due to a loss of income while the ban was in place. "I tried to tonight, with this [petition], to show that the people in this town want that ban reinstated. Instead, councillors are supporting Mr Cooper to swear at, abuse and intimidate these 18-year-old young ladies," Cr Hampton said. Mr Cooper said the women were outside his shop, asking people to fill in the 'I love a smoke free Frankston' survey postcards, when he confronted them. "They moved off straight away but there's no way known I swore at these people. I was in a wheelchair at the time, so I can't have been really intimidating," he said. "They said Hampton got it all going and got the brochures done. I just said, the decision's been made, so now let the state government deal with it and stop lobbying the people of Frankston. "Business has picked up again, people are telling me they're coming back because the smoking ban has been lifted and right now the tables are full." Peninsula Health spokesman John Jukes said the two community health professionals, who were older than 18, were assisting Quit Victoria by distributing the postcards. "Harassment is not a word they used when reporting the incident to their manager but they did feel uncomfortable and left the area," Mr Jukes said.