A visit to the park could be confusing for smokers as most public parks have been exempted from the smoking ban, but some have banned smoking completely. Others will have designated smoking areas. While smokers might enjoy an after-lunch puff in a 1,000-square-metre smoking area in Kowloon Park, they would be prosecuted if they smoked on the other side of the harbour in Victoria Park. The reason for the confusion is that although the ban imposed by the government will be city-wide, individual district councils get to decide about parks. And their rulings might not be final, as they can change their minds according to members whims or a change in council. The amendment to the anti-smoking bill was passed in October with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) drafting proposals on designating smoking areas for some of the 1,447 public parks but deciding to leave the decision-making to the respective district councils, which had to decide quickly among their sub-committees to make the ban's deadline. Deputy Director of Health Leung Ting-hung explained yesterday that the shift of power was due to some district councillors' concerns that more time would be needed to get used to the new ban. In 15 districts, 255 public parks will have designated smoking areas, with only Central and Western, Eastern and Tsuen Wan district councils deciding that smoking would be prohibited in all parks. But the public has yet to learn which parks have which restrictions as the LCSD had not published a complete list. A spokeswoman for the department would not promise that the list would be on its website by January 1. Tsuen Wan district councillor Wong Ka-wa said the council banned smoking in all of their parks because enforcing a designated smoking area would be difficult. Wan Chai district council chairwoman Ada Wong Ying-kay said it had decided to designate smoking areas in some places because of practical reasons. 'We have 10,000 mainland tourists visiting the Golden Bauhinia Square while some parks are too small to designate a smoking area anyway.' Chairman of Hong Kong Council of Smoking and Health Homer Tso Wei-kwok said he would be disappointed if the designated smoking areas were not just transitional measures and hoped those districts which imposed a complete ban would serve as a role model. Arie, 24, an Indonesian domestic helper who gathers with her friends in Victoria Park to smoke, said she would continue unless she was told otherwise. But 82-year-old Mak Hung-yau said he would abide by the law and leave the park to smoke. 'It's good that they extend the ban because although I smoke, I don't want young people to smoke,' he said. 'But they shouldn't just prosecute smokers who violate the law. They should also prosecute the ones who sell cigarettes.'