By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
DANDENONG main street’s cobblestone pavers are here to stay after a meeting between Greater Dandenong Council and disability advocates.
Katrina Newman, a Dandenong-based advocate of Disability Resources Centre, met council officers last month to resolve recently aired grievances about the redeveloped street.
WE ASK Red Gum candidates what they think.
Over the past year, disabled pedestrians have complained to the council about various trouble spots — jolting cobblestone pavers and a lack of kerbside ramps in car parking bays, steep kerbside ramps, and a hazardous bus thoroughfare in Langhorne and Lonsdale streets.
Ms Newman said the council had agreed to put in more disabled parking in Langhorne and Thomas streets, provide signage for the footpath’s ‘green rooms’ and make drinking fountains less hazardous.
But there was no agreement on removing cobblestones or installing audible traffic signals at the bus thoroughfare intersection.
“We maintain the cobblestones are not traversable by wheelchair. They are heavily textured and they’d be at the limit of the Australian Standards. What the council did say about the intersection was that pedestrians have right of way and we’ll talk to Grenda’s [bus company] about the issue.”
The council had up to last month refused to make alterations. The council, developer Places Victoria, and disability-access consultant Murray Mountain had defended the design as compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act.
Greater Dandenong Council’s chief executive officer John Bennie said the pavers were designed for service road traffic; the footpath was for pedestrians.
He said disabled parking bays were near footpath kerbside ramps, but the council was open to installing more ramps to cut down wheelchair travel within the cobblestone parking bays.
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For Red Gum ward candidate comments on the issue, click here.
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