Page 1862 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 2 May 2012
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The motion today also refers to parking at hospitals. This implies that the number of disabled car spaces at the hospital is lower than the number available in car parks. The advice that I have received from the Health Directorate is that there are 1,186 public car spaces at the Canberra Hospital, 174 of which are mobility spaces. This represents 14.7 per cent of the car park spaces.
The Health Directorate has engaged a traffic consultant to review parking operations at Canberra Hospital pursuant to staged building activities at the Canberra Hospital until 2020. The consultant is conducting a campus-wide traffic management strategy and traffic infrastructure solution to cater to each group, including disabled parking arrangements. The consultancy review report is expected to be delivered in the near future and will inform future parking needs across the hospital campus throughout the period of redevelopment.
In terms of another part of today’s motion, the enforcement of illegal parking in disability parking spaces, Parking Operations treats this issue as a priority as part of its normal and out-of-hours patrols. Efforts will continue to ensure the spaces are available to those who are entitled to use them. These efforts are backed up by the penalty levels. The parking infringement notice penalty for stopping in a parking area for the disabled is $180, which is considerably higher than the $81 penalty imposed for overstaying a parking meter or exceeding the time limit.
I will shortly be providing additional information to Ms Le Couteur in relation to progress with implementing the program of works following the 2008 disabled parking study. This follow-up information is in response to questions on notice 1977 and 1984 which she asked previously. I would also be happy to provide a copy of this information to other members if they are interested. Alternatively, if deemed necessary, a further report on progress with these issues can be provided by the August sitting, and my amendment goes to that.
The provision of parking spaces for people with a disability is a complex issue in view of the detailed legal and technical matters included in the relevant standards and guidelines. The design and implementation programs can also be relatively complex and be affected by ongoing car park redevelopment projects.
My amendment seeks to add to Ms Le Couteur’s motion in the sense that, at the heart of it, we cannot agree to the increase of four to five per cent in mobility parking. Something that we have alluded to in transport for Canberra is that we will continue to look at the ways to improve mobility parking. My amendment goes to that. The Assembly cannot just accept that that is the right thing to do without understanding the full impact of taking that decision and what it would mean for other car parks around the territory.
The second amendment just requires me to report back to the Assembly during the August sittings on progress of the ACT disabled parking study and its recommendations. I think the other thing we need to acknowledge is that we will be trying to get some advice from interstate on how the implementation of the new standard is going there as well. As I said, we are ahead of the game, in a sense, in the rollout of the new standard. It will be interesting to see if the feedback we are getting from the community is replicated around the country.
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