A legal loophole has allowed a truck to be parked in a residential Sunshine street for months, for the price of just two parking fines.
Leanne Andrew said she had always got along with her neighbours. She said they were hard workers with whom she would exchange pleasantries in the street. Her husband even used to mow the lawn on their nature strip.
But things have turned sour in recent months after one of the occupants of the neighbouring house went overseas, leaving his truck parked on the street in front of their houses.
Ms Andrew put up with it for weeks, before asking one of the neighbours to move the heavy haulage vehicle.
“He said we didn’t own the street and the owner had gone away,” Ms Andrew said. “I said, ‘You can’t leave it there for another four weeks’. He shrugged his shoulders and walked off.”
VicRoads laws stipulate that heavy or long vehicles can’t be left in built-up areas for longer than an hour. But a loophole that prevents more than one fine being issued for the same infringement means the truck owner will be able to illegally park his vehicle in a quiet street for months for the price of two $93 parking fines.
Ms Andrew said the truck had been moved once since its owner went away. This allowed the council to fine it a second time.
Brimbank city development director Stuart Menzies said because the truck was registered, the council wasn’t allowed to organise for it to be towed until two months after the first fine had been issued, which was last month.
