Tyred of all the potholes?

MURRINDINDI Shire Council were contacted to confirm whether the disabled parking spots in Murrindindi meet the Australian standards. The issue was raised by Ian Kendrick in his letter to the editor.

Vito Albicini, Director Assets and Development at council said, “When installing or constructing new infrastructure or facilities, council has a sign-off process to confirm that the required standards valid at the time are met, under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1992, National Construction Code 2019 and relevant Australian Standards. However regulations periodically change and get updated, and this means our infrastructure may no longer meet requirements.

“The legislation recognises that it is not possible for councils to immediately replace or upgrade all infrastructure when standards change and allows councils to prioritise infrastructure renewal based on community needs and available funding.

“Considering this, not all disabled parking in our shire complies with the DDA requirements or the current standards. We recently completed a DDA Compliance Audit of public spaces and facilities across the shire, including parking spaces, to highlight accessibility issues and look at ways we can improve accessibility for our community.

“Council has reviewed the results of the audit and officers are preparing a list of priority projects, which will feed into council’s 20 year Capital Works Program and will be delivered based on priority and available funding. We are also delivering a number of projects in this financial year to address some of the accessibility issues outlined in the audit, including improving accessibility for the Alexandra Shire Hall and the Kinglake Community Centre.

“During this financial year, council will also conduct a detailed parking study of the Alexandra township to assess vehicle movements and determine current and future parking needs.”