Businesses using Palmerston North City Council footpaths as outdoor dining areas will require new permits.

Palmerston North cafes wanting to use public footpaths will have to scrap ashtrays and put out smokefree signs.

The Palmerston North City Council is introducing its new smokefree rules for outdoor dining on council footpaths.

It is the first city in the country to introduce the measures through a bylaw.

Businesses using council footpaths as outdoor dining areas will require new permits from the council. Businesses will also have to display smokefree signage as well as remove ashtrays from those outdoor dining areas.

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The new conditions will be launched just in time for World Smokefree Day on Tuesday.

City council head of environmental protection services Wayne Jameson said it was not an outright ban on smoking.

"While the new conditions don't ban smoking in outdoor areas, the aim is to support council's educational efforts to discourage smoking in public places."

The council would be in touch with businesses that place tables and chairs on the footpaths about the changes. A new permit will be issued to those businesses in June.

Permits are free and last three years.

Jameson said they did not anticipate any problems with smokers leaving their butts or ash behind, despite not having ashtrays.

Bethany's Restaurant and Cafe owner Reuben Leung Wai said he thought it was a move in the right direction.

"I don't know about banning it completely, there are people out there who still smoke."

Leung Wai said he used to smoke, and he was unsure if he would apply for a new permit.

Leung Wai said it was something the public would adjust to. "People have gotten used to the no-smoking in buildings, I guess they'll get used to the no-smoking outdoors in public areas."

He thought it would be difficult for smokers and non-smokers to dine together.

"That waft of smoke comes past and because you are not so used to it these days, compared to 10 years ago, it is a really strong smell."

However, he said the issue was not as big as it had been in the past, with fewer people smoking.

Cafe Cuba owner Darlene Woodhead said she was of two minds about the move.

"I can see the reasons for it, I just hate that we're trying to stop people from doing everything."

She said 99 per cent of her smoking customers were very considerate, and made an effort to keep smoke from blowing into non-smokers' faces.

If people wanted to smoke outside with lunch, they were only really hurting themselves, she said.

Thorne Coffee owner Damain Thorne said he'd be riveting signs to his tables and politely asking customers not to smoke outside.

He said his smoking customers were just as important as the non-smokers, and he didn't foresee many problems as most smokers were pretty reasonable about requests like this.

The permit follows the council's review of its Signs and Use of Public Places Bylaw last year.

MidCentral Public Health Services health promoter, and chairwoman of the Tobacco Free Central coalition, Julie Beckett, congratulated the council for being the first in New Zealand to discourage smoking in public places by means of a bylaw.

The smokefree signage, which is being supplied by the council at no charge to those businesses, will be delivered soon. The new smokefree signs will be visible from June.

"This builds on the Smokefree Outdoor Areas policy adopted by the council in 2013 which has seen smokefree signs placed within council facilities and in parks and reserves around the city," Jameson said.