Cigarette butts upset Met Campus neighbours

The fallout from a Jan. 1 smoking ban on Windsor Regional Hospital property has been trespassers using the front lawns of residents living around the hospital’s Met campus as ashtrays.

“The cigarette butts, what a disgusting mess. The people around there don’t need this intrusion on their private property,” Ward 4 Coun. Chris Holt said Monday night, after asking city staff to examine some possible solutions to the troubles in the neighbourhood. “Maybe some benches, a smoking facility,” he suggested, explaining that provincial legislation outlawing smoking on hospital grounds has had some harsh impacts on residents. “Basically, Jan. 1 happened and all the smokers, whether they’re staff or visitors or patients, have been crossing onto private property and creating a mess with cigarettes because Windsor Regional Hospital had to remove their smoking area,” said Holt, who met with hospital and health unit officials earlier on Monday. “I’ve had a lot of phone calls. (Smokers) are sitting down on somebody’s front lawn, having lunch and having a cigarette. The residents, they ’re not too appreciative of this.”

Because of the provincial legislation, it’s the city, not the hospital, that must solve the problem, Holt said. Many smokers are smoking legally on city sidewalks and boulevards. He suggested that, if the city provided benches and ashtrays, the smokers won’t resort to using private property.

He said the problem doesn’t appear to be as bad at WRH’s downtown Ouellette campus because the neighbours there are mostly commercial.