Right: A "spruiker" outside a Melbourne store. In 2009, the City of Melbourne dealt with 2775 noise-related complaints, ranging from construction and street cleaning to buskers and spruiking. Of these only 162 related to buskers and spruikers.
Further implications
It will be interesting to see in what form the Draft Street Activities Policy is implemented. The Council is calling on interested parties to make submissions in response to this draft policy by October 23, 2010. The Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle, has stressed that the Council will respond to the submissions it receives.
This is not the first time that there have been proposals to more strictly regulate street activity. Previously these suggestions have not been substantially acted upon.
Now, however, there are increasing pressures to regulate aspects of Melbourne street life. One of the key demographic changes that is occurring is an increase in the number of people now living in the city. The growth of Melbourne as a residential centre is putting greater pressure on the Council to reduce noise pollution. It appears that the growing number of complaints about the noise problems created by buskers are largely from those living in the city.
Despite this, there is a great deal of pressure to leave the city's buskers relatively unregulated. They are generally popular with visitors and tourists and the city has a well-established tradition of a vibrant street life.
The Council's Draft Street Activity Policy has wider implications than its potential impact on buskers. The proposed regulations will restrict the actions of spruikers, handbill distributors and those who operate horse-drawn vehicles. If these regulations are adopted it seems Melbourne will become a more regulated city but have a less diverse street life. The Council maintains that the city will retain diversity and gain better quality entertainment, greater ease of movement and crucially, less noise. On that last question it appears that the Council's judgement may be both loaded and premature. Though Melbournians may have complained about buskers' noise pollution more than they did any other form, this should not disguise the relatively small contribution buskers make to the noise levels in the city.
In 2009, the City of Melbourne dealt with 2775 noise-related complaints, ranging from construction and street cleaning to buskers and spruiking. Of these only 162 related to buskers and spruikers.