Melbourne will trial a 12 month ban on daytime smoking across three city locations starting in October.
The ban will see smoking banned from 6am to 8pm at City Square, QV Melbourne and Goldsbrough Lane.
The Future Melbourne Committee agreed to the new smoking bans at a meeting on Tuesday.
Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said the council was pleased to be able to endorse the new policy.
“We chose larger, more open public spaces to consider for smoking bans this time that welcome hundreds of people day in day out,” he said.
The trial faced some opposition from businesses, particularly in City Square.
The Council’s Community Engagement Report into the issue found that opinions to the ban were evenly split.
Many traders cited difficulty enforcing the ban, night time trading and the general impact on business profits as concerns.
Councillor Richard Foster, Chair of the Council’s People City portfolio, said the council consulted all affected parties through May and June.
“In City Square, a lower rate of 62 per cent of businesses were supportive of a ban, and we’re listening to that feedback by trialling a daytime ban only,” he said.
The changes come on the back of three city laneways made smoke free in March.
The inner-city laneways Block Lane, Equitable Place and Howey Place, with the issue of passive smoking sighted as the main reason.
Melbourne universities have also gone smoke free in recent months, with University of Melbourne, RMIT, La Trobe, Deakin and Swinburne all banning smoking in the past few months.
The Melbourne Council had previously pledged to increase the number of smoke-free laneways to seven by the middle of the year.
The trial will commence on October 1, 2015 and conclude in October 2016.
