Cork TD: 'Undertake impact studies before any changes to city's public realm'

A CORK TD has called on local authorities to undertake accessibility impact studies before making changes to the public realm.

Speaking in the Dáil, Sinn Féin TD for Cork North-Central, Thomas Gould, claimed that the relocating of some disabled parking spaces in Cork city as part of works to pedestrianise 17 city streets was done “with little consultation with the disabled community in Cork”.

“In the summer of 2020 Cork City Council took the very welcome move to pedestrianise some streets and allow on-street dining.

“This was revolutionary for businesses in light of the Covid-19 restrictions, but it also greatly improved the atmosphere of the city centre.

“Unfortunately, this decision involved moving several disabled parking spaces.

“This was done with little consultation with the disabled community in Cork.

“We are now, 18 months later, still waiting for the issue with the moved disabled parking spaces to be resolved.

“We had ordinary parking spaces painted blue and called disabled spaces with no ramps or extra space.

“We had bollards blocking the ramps onto the footpath and dangerous situations with people having to exit cars onto really busy roads,” he said.

Mr Gould acknowledged that there is engagement by Cork City Council with the voluntary group, Cork Access Group.

However, he claimed this group is being involved on a statutory basis but is “not having the impact they should have on planning and they are not being involved at the concept stage”.

“Changes to the public realm often have unforeseen consequences but what I am seeing more and more is that these consequences unfairly fall onto the accessibility of the spaces we’re talking about.

“I’m simply asking that when local authorities are undertaking public realm planning, they do so with accessibility in mind,” Mr Gould said and, “undertake and publish an accessibility impact study prior to public consultation”.

“This would allow them to see whether disabled parking needs to be moved, whether footpaths are going to be narrowed or become shared,” he continued.

Mr Gould said that Government must ensure local authorities are doing their utmost to ensure accessibility for all is a priority when it comes to public realm upgrades.

“The guidelines exist. The UNCRPD, the Universal Design Guidelines, the Blind Guide, the NTAs own Walkability Audit.

“The local authorities have the tools but they’re not all using them and the Government just need to give them that nudge to make sure that when we are improving our public spaces, we’re improving them for everyone.” Mr Gould also said that every local authority in the country should have a full-time disability officer.

He acknowledged that under the Disability Act 2005 local authorities are required to have an Access Officer but that local authorities should have “a full-time disability officer who has just one job” rather than multiple jobs.

Speaking in response to Mr Gould, Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan said that every planning application and every public realm plan is “disability-proofed before it goes out for public consultation”.

He said that access groups serve an “effective and active” role.

“I take on board the Deputy’s point that they are voluntary, but they have an important role to play along with an access officer, who is in place at a senior level within the local authority,” he added.

CITY COUNCIL STATEMENT

In a statement to The Echo, Cork City Council said extensive public consultation was carried out regarding the pedestrianisation of the 17 city streets and that the “vast majority of the submissions were in favour of the pedestrianisation”.

“An integral part of this process included the project team meeting with and liaising with the Cork Access Group to outline the pedestrianisation project and to consider any concerns or suggestions etc,” it said.

This group, which has been in existence for more than a decade, consists of representative members from organisations such as Inclusive Cork, Cork City Partnership, Cork Deaf Association and representatives from the council’s Infrastructure Development Directorate and Roads and Traffic Operations.

The council said that while on-street parking had to be removed to facilitate pedestrianisation, “all disabled parking spaces that were impacted by the pedestrianisation, have been relocated in close proximity to the original spaces”.

“Disabled spaces are located as close as possible to desirable destinations and cater for disabled persons who are passengers in cars as well as disabled drivers,” the council said, adding that, there are also off-street disabled parking bays available in all city centre multi storey car parks and many other disabled spaces across the entire area of the city.

“As the pedestrianisation became a permanent measure, the relocated disabled bays were revisited and, in some cases, where necessary, relocated, relined, dropped kerbs provided and obstacles removed to enhance access.

“During the latter part of 2021, the project team in collaboration with the Cork Access Group carried out an audit of the relocated spaces and found substantially all spaces were in order,” city council also stated.

Cork City Council said some “minor enhancement issues were noted” and these have been added to its work programme.