Alwyn St Mitcham: Truck hits tree, neighbours call for ban in hot spot

A council in Melbourne’s east is set to act on desperate locals’ pleas for a truck ban, but is refusing to replace the street’s character trees.

A council in Melbourne’s east will advocate for a truck ban in a picturesque Mitcham street following another crash last week.

But Whitehorse Council has stopped short of promising to replace Alwyn St’s well-known and damaged pin oak trees with new ones.

Councillors approved part of a motion by Cr Ben Stennett at Monday night’s meeting to write to the Department of Transport and request consideration of a truck ban and lowering the street’s speed limit to 30 km/h.

The street is a known ‘rat run’ for truck drivers between Mitcham and Rooks roads and is filled with pin oak trees, some believed to be about 80 years old.

A truck ploughed into a tree on September 14 about 7am, damaging another parked car nearby and cutting power to the street and its surrounds for most of the morning.

Cr Stennett said residents were outraged over the latest crash, believed to be have been the seventh incident in 11 years.

He said residents were demanding changes out of “fear of continued assaults on their once beautiful street”.

“These residents are under attack by drivers who are seeing their street as a highway or a thoroughfare,” he told the gallery.

“Their concerns have been expressed for a long time and have been ignored … our community expects the local authority to protect them.”

Cr Prue Cutts backed Cr Stennett’s calls, saying “these residents don’t feel council is listening to them”.

She said a potential trial of a 30km/h speed limit in nearby Glenburnie Rd had set a precedent for the area and could be also implemented in Alwyn St.

Cr Cutts said she was also “distressed” about the damaged pin oak trees being replaced with alternative plantings and tree species, particularly on Alwyn St’s northern side.

Cr Stennett’s motion was divided into a separate vote on replacing pin oak trees like for like, but it was voted down by councillors, six votes to five.

Last week, Alwyn St resident Kire Talevski said there had been seven incidents involving trucks hitting trees in the past 11 years.

A petition with more than 60 signatures was sent to the council in September 2020 calling for a truck ban or other improvements.

“People were fuming about it last year and now there is an uproar,” Mr Talevski said.

“It’s the most beautiful street in Mitcham because of those trees, and they (the council) have done nothing except put an advisory sign up which is yellow and blends into the street.

“Are they waiting for someone to actually die before something is done?”

The council’s director of city development, Jeff Green, told Leader on September 14 a truck ban would require approval from the Department of Transport.

He said the council had recently installed signs on Alwyn St and other nearby roads to advise they were unsuitable for trucks.

“Alwyn St has a number of traffic management treatments to slow down traffic and make it undesirable for trucks to use,” Mr Green said.