Page 1856 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 2 May 2012
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But this does not seem to be enough to satisfy demand. Most town and group centres in Canberra already had the two to three per cent disabled parking spaces available in 2008, which was when the last substantial review was undertaken. And it was clear when this review was undertaken that this was already inadequate. My motion calls for an increase to four to five per cent. It is interesting that it was inadequate in 2008. The population of Canberra has been ageing since then and we all know that as the population ages, the number of disabled people increases. This is an issue which is going to become more and more an issue in Canberra as we age and as transport and parking pressures increase throughout Canberra.
However, averages of parking spaces can be problematic. Although the survey showed that some of the town and group centres provided three per cent for disabled parking, part of the problem was that the requirements were simply not homogenous. The 2008 study showed that the two places where all of the disabled parking spaces were being used at the one time had provided more than the mandatory requirement of three per cent. Kingston, for instance, provided 6.7 per cent of its spaces for disability parking. They were all full. At Cooleman Court, again all of the 3.2 per cent of spaces for disabled parking were full at the time of the aerial survey in 2008. I guess what the figures were showing was that these were particular areas where the population had been ageing and the growth in demand for disability parking had vastly outstripped the provision of parking.
Given how young Canberra is and that we still have suburbs which are fairly homogenous in age, there are higher proportions of aged people and thus generally disabled people in some areas than in others. So there are some really good reasons to increase provision of disabled parking in areas which have higher populations of aged people. And it is my understanding that even ACTPLA staff agree that there simply are not enough disabled car parking spaces in many areas.
Looking at the standards, the Building Code of Australia standard for the number of disabled car parks in shopping centres is one space for every 50, for up to 1,000 spaces. That is a measly two per cent. The New Zealand standard is higher than the Australian standard. It requires one disability access space for up to 20 car parks, two for 21 to 50, and an additional one for each 50 spaces; that is, for less than 20 car parks, a provision of five per cent but overall four to 10 per cent.
In 2008, TAMS commissioned a study which found that the national standard was insufficient and found an average need for disabled parking spaces of three per cent of all parking spaces in shopping centres in ACT group and town centres. The ACT currently meets this target in the majority of places. The report recommended increasing the supply to three per cent where a deficiency existed. The government adopted the recommendation that disabled parking spaces should be increased to three per cent, and this is now part of the 2011 territory plan’s parking and vehicular access general code.
My motion also raises issues of parking at local centres. Although there are often one or two disabled parking places and while this is of course proportionally correct, it only takes one or two disabled persons to come to the local centre and the disabled parking places are full. Here we are talking about people who are not in a position to
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