The old common-law rule that you can do what you like on your own land has rightly been modified into oblivion. Higher population densities and more noisy and noxious industries have required a limiting of the individual land-owner’s right in favour of broader community rights. In many places it has been a difficult transition. People and industry have often grown up cheek by jowl and relocation of one or the other has not come without cost. Other, newer, places have grown up with land-use regulation which has enabled industry and residential areas to be separated for the good of both. This, until recently, has been one of the joys of a planned city, such a Canberra. Before moving into a dwelling people can check the surrounding land use and be reasonably certain that the character of the area will stay the same. That has been eroded somewhat with changes in residential densities, but one can still remain confident that a service station or brickworks will not pop up next door. None the less, the potential for conflict between residential and industrial land use remains.
This week, the Minister for Urban Services, Tony De Domenico, issued new rules on truck parking in the suburbs. The new rules come after a year’s inquiry following Labor’s plan to ban all but light trucks from the suburbs. They will ban only trucks with refrigeration units, pantechnicon semi-trailers and stock trucks. Others will be allowed to operate between 6am and 10pm (or for existing trucks from 5.30am to midnight). Clearly Mr De Domenico has gone to far in favour of truck owners. In the name of supporting small business, Mr De Domenico has condemned neighbours of truck owners to noisy, offensive truck use. Suburbs are for people to live in, not to operate trucking businesses from. Business use that is incompatible with residential use should not be allowed to interfere with residential amenity. Driving in an ordinary car to an industrial site where the truck is parked should be no more onerous than for any other person driving to work.
The result of Mr De Domenico’s proposal is that the Transport Workers’ Union is delighted. The union’s secretary, Trevor Santi, said the new rules would “”look after all our members interests”. Residents represented by the anti-truck group Restore Our Residential Environment were incensed. The respective reactions suggest a lack of balance, particularly as the TWU finds itself opposing Mr De Domenico on most issues.
It is now likely that the Opposition and the cross-benches will ensure Mr De Domenico’s rules do not come in to force. If so, there should not be another year-long inquiry. The issue is one of residential amenity. Some residents do not mind a truck in the neighbourhood. Some are less sensitive to noise than others. Moreover, some drivers start up and leave quickly while others warm up diesel engines for up to an hour. Some drivers do noisy trucking work through the weekend; others use proper workshops at industrial sites.
It seems that, as stationing a truck is out of the ordinary residential use, drivers of large trucks should only be allowed in the suburbs if their neighbours agree. Otherwise residents should be able to order them out. A system of action after complaint might be more workable than blanket rules, though there would have to be some size criteria to base it upon. Moreover, a system that permit trucks if neighbours agree would encourage drivers to be as considerate as possible to keep their privilege.