A GROUP of Parramatta restaurant owners has had an early victory in their legal fight against Parramatta Council's ban on smoking in outdoor dining areas.
At a procedural hearing on Monday, the Land and Environment Court put an interim order in place to stop the council from enforcing its smoking ban on the restaurants in the Parramatta Business Freedom Association until the court makes a final ruling on the ban.
The court will next hear the case on May 10.
The restaurants in the association, including Armani, Sabatinis and others, want the council to scrap the ban, because smoking in outdoor dining areas will be banned by the state government in 2015.
Omar Besiso, the spokesman for the group, said it isn't fair for local restaurant owners to lose business due to an earlier ban, as it will still be possible to smoke in outdoor dining areas in neighbouring suburbs.
He said the group was pleased that they had been given a temporary reprieve from the ban.
A council spokesman said the order had not prevented the council from bringing in its smoking ban throughout the area from Tuesday, May 1.
"The interim order is confined to nine locations only," he said.
The ban was a way to protect the health of the community.