MARIBYRNONG Council and residents are in the dark about an annual truck count survey in Footscray and Yarraville six months after it was conducted.
VicRoads did its annual truck count in March but the results remain a mystery as the government continues to sit on the results.
The Weekly understand the figures are with Roads Minister Terry Mulder but repeated requests to his office for comment have gone unanswered.
Williamstown MP Wade Noonan said it was a disgrace that the government would keep the count from the council and community.
“These just get later and later every year,” he said. “By the time they get released the government will say that they’re too out of date to rely upon.”
Mr Noonan first raised the matter in Parliament on March 15.
Mr Mulder gave assurances ‘‘VicRoads will provide information in relation to the accounts of truck movements in those areas some time over the next couple of months’’.
Yet six months later the data remains unreleased, prompting Mr Noonan to question what the minister had ‘‘to hide’’.
“A truck is a truck — how hard can it be to count them? The government is trying to do a snow job on the community.”
The count is part of a joint arrangement between VicRoads and Hobsons Bay and Maribyrnong councils.
VicRoads collects the counts on major roads in Spotswood, Yarraville and Footscray over a week in March to monitor traffic and the effect of the two truck curfews.
Last year’s count showed average weekday truck traffic rose 10 per cent over a 24-hour period.
Those figures were revealed only after Maribyrnong Council was forced to take the unprecedented step of writing to Mr Mulder seeking the release of statistics it helped pay for.
Maribyrnong mayor John Cumming said the council would ask the minister to release the data.
