By Benjamin Millar
Residents living along one of the inner-west’s busiest truck routes have slammed the state government’s failure to introduce industry-backed truck curfews on their road.
Star Weekly last week reported older trucks that fail to meet emission control standards will face extended curfews on Somerville Road and Moore and Francis streets in Footscray and Yarraville.
But residents living along Williamstown Road are furious that truck curfews for their road they say were promised in the Smart Freight Initiative were left out of the announcement.
Maribyrnong Truck Action Group secretary Martin Wurt said verbal agreements had been made at negotiating meetings that Williamstown Road and Buckley Street would have night truck curfews as part of the new ‘freight zone’.
Save Willy Road president Dr Kate Lycett said the government had broken its promise and overlooked “the most important components of the initiative”.
“We have an unprecedented consensus between the transport industry and residents who agree that these curfews are absolutely necessary, and yet the government obstructs their implementation,” she said.
Truck trips along Williamstown Road are projected to double to about 4000 per day by 2031.
Dr Lycett said the failure to include residential stretches of Williamstown Road and Buckley Street in the new curfew regime will “funnel the dirtiest trucks” along these routes.
The state government did not respond by time of publication.
