Jennifer Pittorino
Dreams have come true for Maribyrnong residents who have been campaigning for truck monitoring for more than eight years, following last week’s state budget.
Inner-west residents breathed a sigh of relief following the handing down of Tuesday’s state budget, as a long standing promise to enforce a truck curfew on local streets was made possible with $10.2 million funding for camera technology to help enforce the state government’s 24-7 truck ban on roads in the inner west .
“There has always been a dark cloud hanging over the promise to enforce 24-7 truck bans,” Maribyrnong Truck Action Group (MTAG) president Martin Wurt said.
“This announcement has given us faith that they are going to keep their promise and keep trucks off local streets.”
Since 2017, MTAG has been campaigning for electronic truck monitoring in the west.
“We know how vital these cameras will be when the [West Gate Tunnel] opens in late 2025,” MTAG said in a statement.
“For this project to fail in removing thousands of massive trucks from our streets was never an option.”
As reported by Star Weekly, recent MTAG research revealed 95 truck broke the weekend curfew during a two-hour window.
Mr Wurt said MTAG thanked the state government for the funding and said it will continue the fight to reduce truck emissions in the inner west.
“We are going to continue monitoring the existing truck curfews which are going to be in place until the West Gate Tunnel project opens, which is not projected until late 2025,” he said.
“Given the recent footage MTAG captured breaking truck curfews, it shows me need to keep up that pressure.”
