Over the last year, several Canberra senior citizens have come a cropper and taken a tumble in the carpark at Hughes shops. Canberra Liberals MLA Nicole Lawder says the ACT Government had promised to upgrade the parking to current disability standards by the end of last year – but a government spokesperson said work will not begin until the middle of this year.
Hughes is an ageing suburb: 28.3 per cent of the population is over the age of 60, according to the 2021 census, and the Hughes Community Centre is home to the Council on the Ageing ACT (COTA ACT); U3A Canberra, attended by 200 elderly people a day; and the Alchemy Chorus for people with dementia.
Jenny Mobbs, CEO of COTA ACT, said that there have been several accidents over the past 12 months; folk have been unable to get into their cars easily, and two have fallen to the pavement.
Ms Lawder, Shadow Minister for City Services and for Seniors, wrote to Chris Steel, then-Minister for City Services, last year to express her concern about the falls. (A government spokesperson said no falls or trips had been reported.)
“The time is well overdue for the government to take this issue seriously and deliver some results in this space since it’s a high safety issue,” Ms Lawder said.
According to Ms Lawder, Mr Steel told her that chevron areas, bollards, and pram ramps would be installed by November 2023.
“However, it is upsetting to see that to date nothing has been done to improve the disability parking,” Ms Lawder said.
“As we progress towards the end of January, seniors will start returning to various programs at Hughes, so this has been an opportunity missed to upgrade the parking arrangements for safer use by people with disability, and seniors.”
A government spokesperson said that improving mobility parking at the Hughes Shops was “originally envisaged to be a simple upgrade”: chevron parking and bollards.
But the detailed design process showed that additional kerb ramps would be needed from the chevron areas onto paths, the spokesperson explained. In one place, the path was so narrow it would encroach on private land (under shop awnings).
“The ACT Government has worked with the shops owners to help resolve this issue with alternative design options,” the spokesperson said.
“A final design has been produced, which avoids the use of private land, and works are programmed to commence in mid-2024.”
Other parts of the shops require attention, Ms Mobbs believes: “The irregular paving in the larger part of the shopping centre area and the area by the coffee shop need regular maintenance, as they are very uneven, and trips and falls are inevitable.”
The Canberra Liberals, Ms Lawder said, had announced a $100 million “Putting your suburb first policy” that would “prioritise basic local services and amenities that have long been neglected by Labor and the Greens”.
