Project background

In late 2025, the City of Port Phillip undertook a community engagement process to gather feedback on a potential change to the Local Law regulating the long-term parking of caravans, boats, and trailers on roads and public areas. This initiative responds to growing community concerns about parking scarcity, road safety and the visual amenity of streets.

The engagement was the first touchpoint with the community to understand the support of potentially adding a time limit to caravans, boats, and trailers parked on public land to ensure community amenity, fair access to parking and clear public spaces.

Currently, our Local Law contains no specific provisions regulating how long caravans, boats, and trailers can be kept in these public areas.

What did we ask?

We asked the community:

• Do you own a caravan, boat, or trailer?
• To what extent do you support a new local law that would restrict how long a caravan, boat, or trailer can be parked on your street?
• Please share any additional comments or reason for your level of support on a new local law restricting the amount of time a caravan, boat or trailer can be kept in your street.

What did we hear and how did it affect the outcome?

The wording was well received by the community and has formed the basis of the formal amendment.

Support for the proposed change was strong, with 72% of survey participants and 67% of participants in the Neighbourhood Engagement Program supporting or strongly supporting it.

When discussing why they had or had not supported the amendment, community members raised the following themes:

• Parking scarcity and competition: Many respondents expressed frustration about limited parking availability, noting that caravans, boats, and trailers take up valuable parking spaces needed by residents and visitors.
• Fairness and equity: Several comments focused on fairness between residents with off-street parking and those without, as well as comparisons between commercial and private use of parking spaces.
• Visual amenity and street appeal: Many respondents described caravans and trailers as "eyesores," negatively impacting the streetscape and neighbourhood character.
• Safety and visibility: Concerns were frequently raised about reduced visibility at intersections, driveways, schools and pedestrian crossings, posing risks to pedestrians, cyclists and drivers
• Impact on community and liveability: Feedback highlighted the broader impact on community wellbeing, lifestyle and neighbourhood character.
• Storage responsibility: Many respondents argued that owners should store caravans, boats, and trailers off street or in commercial storage rather than on public streets.
• Enforcement and regulation: Concerns about how the proposed restrictions would be enforced and whether compliance could be effectively managed were raised.
• Special parking permits: Several suggestions were made to introduce permit systems allowing residents to park caravans, boats, or trailers near their homes.
• Fairness for recreational vehicles: Some respondents argued that registered caravans and boats should be treated like other vehicles and allowed to park on streets.

To learn more about what we heard, you can read the complete engagement report below:

What happens next?

Based on the previous level of community support, Council has been preparing the formal amendment documents to ensure they align with the statutory process.

We invite community members to read the draft amendment and share your views. Your feedback will help inform whether we go ahead with the proposed changes.

This will be your last chance to provide feedback on the amendment before it is presented to Council for adoption.