Page 749 - Week 02 - Thursday, 23 February 2012
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I was out at Erindale on the weekend, but I was not out there counting car parks. We have moved to the new national law on accessible parking. That has involved changes to disabled parking spots, particularly widening them so that it allows people who are getting in and out of wheelchairs to be able to do that, whether they are in the driver’s seat or the passenger seat. That has required reconfiguration of car parking spaces around town centres and shopping centres.
There has been some concern raised with me around bollards being put up. I think there has been some work done on that. We are in line with implementing the national accessible parking standard, which has required reconfiguration. My understanding is that most of that work was being done without any loss of the numbers of accessible car parks, but I will ask parking operations to let us know the situation out in Erindale.
MR SPEAKER: Supplementary, Mr Doszpot.
MR DOSZPOT: Thank you for the answer, minister. I understand that your reconfiguration should not result in a reduction. Minister, in the redesign of the disabled parking spaces what action was taken to ensure that the impact on the availability of disabled parking spaces was minimised?
MS GALLAGHER: In terms of the implementation of the national parking requirements, the advice to me is that it was not to be done at a loss of car parking space overall but that the widening did result in reconfiguration, because they are almost double the size of what a standard car park actually is. That has required reconfiguration. Overall, my understanding is that we are maintaining, and there is a requirement of a certain number of disabled car parks in any car parking allocation. I am happy to take the Erindale issue on notice. It may be that there is more parking to come if there has been a short-term loss in terms of the reconfiguration but I will take that on notice.
MR HANSON: Supplementary, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Hanson.
MR HANSON: Minister, what action is being taken to ensure that disabled parking spaces are adequately monitored for illegal parking?
MS GALLAGHER: That is the day-to-day job of Parking Operations, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary, Mr Hanson.
MR HANSON: Thank you. Minister, what work has been undertaken to ensure that there are adequate disabled parking spaces available throughout the ACT?
MS GALLAGHER: There are standards that apply and those standards are applied. My advice is that there has been no loss to disabled parking space in Erindale.
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