YEARS of campaigning for truck curfews on residential streets may unravel for Yarraville and Footscray residents with the hard-fought respite hours in danger of being cast aside.
Curfews on Francis Street and Somerville Road apply from 8pm-6am, Monday-Saturday, and 1pm, Saturday, to 6am, Monday.
But the state government and Port of Melbourne Corporation have suggested spreading freight delivery to nights and weekends to tackle the projected doubling of truck numbers on Melbourne’s roads during the next decade.
The $1.2billion Webb Dock redevelopment will meet some of the expected load as last year’s record 2.5million containers a year doubles to fivemillion by 2025 and eightmillion by 2035.
Much of the increase will be soaked up by an expanded Swanson Dock, which port chief executive Stephen Bradford said would need to process about fourmillion containers by 2025.
He was reported by The Age as flagging a move to more night and weekend delivery of containers.
“In the off-peak hours, we don’t think Victorians will object to more trucks on roads in the early hours of the morning,” Mr Bradford said.
“With noise walls on our freeways [and] the freeways effectively empty, why not use them?”
But the proposal has left residents fuming and vowing “to do whatever it takes” to keep the curfews in place.
Maribyrnong Truck Action Group member Martin Wurt said both sides of politics had dropped the ball on the issue and long-suffering residents were paying the price.
The “shovel-ready” truck action plan must be a priority as Francis Street already struggled under an estimated 20,000 trucks a day, he said.
But the government has shelved the plan, with no funding provided in this month’s budget.
“The community has been campaigning against trucks on our streets for 10 years and we are not about to give up now,” Mr Wurt said.
Greens MP Colleen Hartland slammed the threat to curfews, and she plans to force the government to reveal its intentions.
“Residents blockaded the roads to get the truck curfews. When a community can’t sleep it gets out on the streets, and I will stand with them.”
Maribyrnong mayor John Cumming warned the port’s growth would lead to more congestion.
The government had not responded to queries from the Weekly by deadline time.
