By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
DISABILITY advocates are considering sleep-out protests in Dandenong’s main street after feeling brushed aside by Greater Dandenong Council over safety issues.
Disability Resources Centre’s action group has met the council several times in the past two years to complain about a litany of safety glitches in the recently-reworked Lonsdale Street.
Their concerns include uneven cobblestone pavers, the lack of kerbside ramps in cobblestone car parks and safety issues for visually-impaired pedestrians crossing the bus thoroughfare at the corner of Lonsdale and Langhorne streets.
But the council has agreed to change only one measure: to install extra parking for the disabled in Langhorne and Pultney streets.
The council’s engineering services director Bruce Rendell told the Journal the council agreed to “exceed” disability standards by installing the additional car park spaces.
Last week, Places Victoria — the state government authority in charge of the Revitalising Central Dandenong project — closed parking bays in Lonsdale Street to repair the cobblestones.
The council’s project manager Kevin van Boxtel said the works were “relatively minor”, repairing loose pavers, grouting and cracked concrete.
Action group member Sharon Harris, who has vocally complained about the jarring impact of riding on the cobblestones in her wheelchair, is organising petitions to level out the cobblestones.
She is considering a winter sleep-out protest to highlight her and others’ plights.
“At the moment I don’t want to shop here, in my own town. If all Places Victoria is doing is repairing the pavers, then they aren’t listening. I want to know how many others — such as the elderly with their sticks — have concerns about these pavers. It’s about rallying all of these people up.”
Katrina Newman, facilitator of the DRC action group, said the pavers were in a “shocking state”.
She said the group would discuss how to step up its campaign. One option was protests, another was filing complaints under the Disability Discrimination Act against Places Victoria and the council. “Unfortunately, they could probably successfully argue it’s too expensive to fix the problems.”
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