A community group fighting for trucks to be removed from inner west residential streets predicts the issue will be a major vote-swayer at the November 29 state election.
The Maribyrnong Truck Action Group (MTAG) has launched a new website featuring a scorecard on the transport policies and positions of the Liberal, Labor and Greens parties.
President Samantha McArthur said MTAG was not endorsing a party, but analysis of party positions showed a clear division between the Liberals’ East West Link proposal and the Westgate Distributor bypass option promised by Labor and backed by the Greens.
“One thing that became clear putting together the scorecard and analysing the policies is that only those parties supporting a truck bypass are recognising the urgency of the situation here,” she said.
“The western stage of the East West Link would be more than a decade away and we still don’t have a massive amount of detail around the entry and exit points, restrictions on height or whether placarded loads would be restricted as with the Burnley and Domain tunnels.”
[A placarded load is one that requires a truck to display a dangerous goods warning.]
The MTAG website includes statements by representatives of the three main parties.
Western suburbs Liberal MP Andrew Elsbury suggests the full East West Link, with a direct entry to the Port of Melbourne, is the only practical long-term solution to trucks on residential streets.
“Only the Napthine Liberals are serious about ridding our residential streets of truck traffic, as only the Napthine Liberals have a practical plan,” his statement says.
Williamstown MP Wade Noonan points to VicRoads traffic modelling in 2010 showing Labor’s planned bypass would remove 50-70 per cent of trucks from local roads such as Francis Street and Somerville Road.
“Labor’s pledge to deliver this vital piece of infrastructure within our first term has been embraced by the community,” his statement says.
The statement by Western suburbs Greens MP Colleen Hartland calls for the Westgate bypass as well as moving freight onto rail.
“Labor had 10 years to fix the truck problem but did not remove one single truck from our streets,” it says. “And despite the Liberal Party’s election commitment to not neglect the west, they’ve done nothing.”
Ms McArthur said residents could decide which party had the better solution.“Everyone realises this is a problem,” she said. “The longer we delay the inevitable spend, the more it’s going to cost.”
