Small business group criticises City of Melbourne plan to remove two car lanes from Spencer St

A Melbourne City Council plan to remove two car lanes from a section of Spencer St has sparked a backlash from businesses and motorists.

The city council’s neighbourhood plan for Batman St, West Melbourne. Picture: City of Melbourne.

A City of Melbourne plan to remove car lanes and put in protected bike lanes on a section of Spencer Street has got the small business lobby fired up.

The city council has renewed its push for the state government to give the green light to the West Melbourne Structure Plan which was first launched in 2018.

Under the proposal, Spencer St north of the CBD would lose two of its four vehicle lanes and some parking spaces to help create a community-centred “neighbourhood gathering place”.

Council images show the street with protected bike lanes and trams, and the council hopes that the Spencer St tram line will be extended to Footscray and North Melbourne’s Arden St.

A render of an upgraded Spencer Street, West Melbourne. Picture: City of Melbourne.

How Spencer Street in West Melbourne is now.

However, recent council decisions to install new bike paths at the expense of car lanes in the inner city have caused a backlash from businesses and some motorists who complain of rising congestion.

Small Business Australia executive director Bill Lang said the “City of Melbourne’s octopus arms of bike lanes know no end”.

“Every time they change the roads and put in more bike lanes, that reduces the flow of vehicles into the city, which has an impact on overall economic activity in the inner city,” he said.

“It creates artificial barriers for people, in this case from the north-west coming into the city, and impacts small business owners, not just in that area, but all around the city.”

Mr Lang said the council needed to do more to take into account the views of small businesses, and to consider issues like compensation when roadworks disrupted trade.

A City of Melbourne spokeswoman said the West Melbourne Structure Plan was a vision to improve neighbourhood amenity, attract new development, and support sustainable long-term growth to meet the needs of a growing city.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for people to move around and support our traders, no matter how they choose to travel – by public transport, car, bike or foot,” she said.

The council insists the plan went through rigorous development and consultation before its adoption in 2018, while the linked planning scheme amendment also went through community consultation and assessment by an independent panel, before getting council endorsement in 2020.

A Tuesday night council meeting will consider a recommendation from management that Lord Mayor Sally Capp write to the government seeking a decision on the amendment.