Design of disabled parking bay in Limerick widely criticised

A DISABILITY advocate and disabled driver in Limerick has expressed his frustration at the design of a wheelchair accessible parking bay in the city, deemed ‘not fit for purpose.’

Wheelchair user Steven Casey, from Bruff, has criticised the local authority over, what he claims, was a lack of consultation on planning between departments and members of the disabled driver community in Limerick.

He said: “Why should we, in the disabled community, be reduced to shopping online when our friends, families and peers can all go to cafés and cinemas together now.”

The wheelchair accessible parking spot, located on Cecil Street in Limerick city, has been widely criticised by members of the public, for having four poles blocking access to the footpath.

Steven said that the poles around the parking space may have served a purpose at one point but are now outdated. “If the Council had sought consultation, they would know this,” he added.

Last December, Limerick City and County Council launched the SpaceFinder app, a technological tool providing real time vacancy status of the city’s 140 accessible parking bays for disabled drivers.

WATCH: New app to help drivers find disabled parking bays launched in Limerick

Despite working closely with the Council on this innovation, Steven stressed that increased consultation is required in order to achieve “equality."

“It is a disgrace and shameful that we can't even get consultation or the option of it,” he stated.

He referenced an instance several years ago, where the Council were seeking public input around the issue, through their website.

After registering and detailing some of the issues he found throughout the city in relation to accessible parking bays, he received an automated response to say his queries "had been logged."

He points to a lack of human interaction on the issue. “I'm nothing special but I do have lived experience," he said adding that 15% of Limerick citizens have a disability in some way, shape or form.

“The council has/have disability officers in unpaid positions on top of their own paid roles, who should be actively seeking consultation from the people affected,” he added.

Cllr Sasa Novak, brought the issue up at a local area briefing and received the following commitment from the Council:

"I will be arranging to remove 2 no. poles and relocating the signage left and right to accommodate the Disabled Driver's needs at this location.

"I have just given our Traffic Crew an instruction to move the signage to enable the appointed Contractor to take out the poles."

The statement also confirmed that this would be completed in the next couple of days, if not early next week.