The City of Melbourne council will no longer issue permits to horse-drawn carriages which allow them to park on the busy CBD area of Swanson Street, lord mayor Robert Doyle announced on Thursday.
Horse-drawn parking will also be removed between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane, meaning carriages will need to park on St Kilda Road.
Currently, there is a park and pickup location for horse carriage businesses on Swanston Street.
After June 30 those spots won't exist anymore. Carriages will still be able to enter from outside the CBD, but won't be able to stop and settle in the usual Swanston Street spots.
The new place for carriages to stop, on St Kilda Road near the Arts Centre, is over 4km away from the original Swanston Street parking spots.
The five operators who run a total of 14 carriages will still be able to operate on Victorian roads. Doyle said he didn't have the power to outright ban the carriages, but believed their existence in the CBD was a safety risk.
A petition to ban the carriages started in 2015 and has almost 17,000 signatures.
The carriages have long been a fixture of Melbourne's CBD, but have faced growing criticism sparked in part by a video that went viral in 2015 showing a horse distressed, collapsed on the road while still tied to a carriage.
For now, Melbourne council is citing the construction of the new Metro Tunnel and CBD South station as reasons for no longer granting horse and carriage permits.
"Swanston Street is now busier than Regent Street in London," said Doyle.
"It's no longer appropriate for the horse-drawn vehicles to operate in their current location on Swanston Street. This civic spine should be primarily be used for cyclists, trams and delivery vehicles. The impact of the Metro Tunnel works makes this change necessary now."