More Disabled Parking needed in St Francis
Following on from yesterday’s post regarding road and parking improvements envisaged by St Francis Property Owners in the 2018 SRA proposal, there is one aspect of parking that shopping centre owners simply have to pay attention to and to do so without any delay. Last week I had occasion to meet a friend of mine and her daughter-in-law who have been visiting St Francis over the holidays. The daughter tragically had a horse riding accident some years ago that has left her wheel chair bound.
We initially agreed to meet at Pedal and Spoke but as I arrived early I did a reconnoitre of the parking only to find there was not a single spot to park anywhere in the vicinity of Pedal & Spoke, Rambling Rose or Christies. I quickly called my friend and recommended that we rather meet in the old village at Tails & Thyme. Thankfully two vehicles vacated parking bays almost directly outside ‘Tails’ almost as the friend and were able to park with plenty of room for the daughter to extricate and set up her wheelchair.
As adept as paraplegics are at setting up their wheelchairs and as much as they insist on being independent we still need to make life as easy as possible for the disabled. Whilst wheelchairs can access ‘Tails’ from the car park opposite Kouga Print, possibly the owners could designate the two adjacent parking spots for disable parking only. The owner could possibly also create a small ramp as the ground is uneven and a ramp would go a long way to making access a little easier.
It seems there are just two disable parking bays in the village, one outside the main entrance to SPAR and the other outside the Pharmacy, both of which are regularly abused by people who should know better.
It would be interesting to have shops, restaurants, coffee shops, B&B’s and guest houses make COMMENTS what the offer to make access and facilities more accessble by paraplegics and the disabled. Tell us about you facilities and St Francis Today will create a page on our website where will happily give disable friendly businesses a free advert on that page.
As the owner of Pedal & Spoke Café, I acknowledge your comment. We are wheelchair friendly and do have ramps, however I will certainly take up the issue with the landlord in terms of dedicating a parking bay for the disabled.
Thank you for bringing this important issue to our attention.
The provision of parking for the disabled is regulated by the South African National Standards ( SANS), Part “S”.
Buildings of a public nature housing activities such as coffee shops, offices, restauraNts, pubs and shops are required to provide at least one, on site employee parking bay dedicated for the disabled.
Where the SANS Town planning requirements call for more than 50 on-site parking bays a further 1 space per 25 bays for the handicapped is required to be provided.
The total number of on-site parking bays is determined by the size of the building.
Bays for the disabled are required to be one meter wider than the normal parking space to allow for comfortable wheel chair access.
The 167 St Francis Drive Development complies with all the abovementioned requirements, 12 on-site parking bays have been de-markated of which 2 are wider than the regular parking bays with a further 2 designated as loading bays. Regular disabled patrons are aware of the presence of these options and make use of them and find the absence of any steps to the facilities similarly comfortable
The total number of parking bays is less than 50 and as such there is no obligation for the owners to provide additional dedicated parking spaces for the disabled.
Parking in season espcially along the St Francis Drive strip in the vicinity of 167 St Francis Drive is at a premium which is exacerbated by the absence and or limited on-site parking provided for, by our neighbours
brought about by an over-sight by the Municipal Approving Authority together with the volunteer based over sight
committeee of the day.
Notwithstanding this situation, we have been actively petitioning the Local Authority for the past 8 years or so to implement the recommendations of the Town Planning Consultant’s urban design proposals, which have, since circa 2005 consistently recommended in terms of the spacial/integrated development plans that access and a thoroughfare be formalized between the existing Spar car Park and the Municipal parking area. The motivation being, to alleviate congestion at the three way stop, to provide access for emergency vehicles, garbage trucks and to facilitate additional off site parking, loading and handicapped parking bays.
Despite this proposal having gone through the public participation process the Municipal Officials have made no effort to implement this relatively simple and inexpensive exercise, citing the stumbling block as being lack of funds and now latterly claiming that the zoning of a public open space precludes any roads traversing land zoned POS.