Traffic from the Westgate Tunnel and highways across Melbourne’s west have been pushing large, loud, polluting trucks onto residential streets around Kensington, including Kensington Rd, Epsom Rd and Macaulay Rd.

Residents and community groups are asking that the state government take urgent action: extend truck bans into Kensington, crack down on truck rat running, and stop prioritising toll revenue and freight convenience over the health and safety of local communities. We need to stop so many trucks coming into Kensington.

Open letter to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety

Dear Minister Spence,

As residents and community members in Kensington, we write to ask you to urgently take action to remove heavy truck traffic from Kensington Road and surrounding residential streets.

The West Gate Tunnel project was meant to take trucks off local roads and improve safety and air quality for inner-west communities. Instead, your government’s approach has simply shifted the problem. 

This had led to a significant increase in heavy vehicles travelling through Kensington. At the same time, tolling arrangements have created perverse incentives for trucks to avoid major roads and cut through residential streets. Roads such as Kensington Road, Epsom Road and Macauley Road, never designed to carry high volumes of freight, are now being used as through-routes by trucks seeking to avoid tolls and congestion on major roads and putting the safety of Kensington residents at risk.

This failure of planning is having real consequences. Parents are worried about their children walking or cycling to school. Local streets are no longer safe, and are now being used for widespread truck rat-running through our community.

This outcome was predictable and preventable. Instead of reducing truck impacts overall, current policies have displaced them onto communities like ours. Kensington is now carrying the burden of decisions made by your Labor government, without the infrastructure or safeguards needed to support this level of truck traffic. 

All Victorians deserve safe and healthy neighbourhoods. Residential streets should not be used as shortcuts for trucks when there are alternatives.

We need urgent action. We call on you to introduce a truck curfew on weekdays between 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. or extend truck bans into Kensington, to crack down on truck rat running so families can safely drop off their kids at the childcare centre and local schools. Stop prioritising toll revenue and freight convenience over the health and safety of local communities.

Minister, we urge you to fix this and ensure Kensington is not left paying the price for flawed transport decisions.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

Sincerely,

Residents, families and community members of Kensington