The legal action that HBCC was forced into by Access for all Alliance cost the community thousands and thousands of dollars. The case that was heard ended up being the test case for Queensland in relation to bus stop design. It is just a shame that our community had to fund it. If the State or better still, the Federal Government, had bothered to provide compliant designs etc for bus stops there would not have been a problem in the first place.
I believe HBCC acted properly in relation to legal dealings in relation to this topic and I don’t support an Access for Alliance group, or any other group that uses the threat of legal action each and every time they open their mouths as a way to get things done. A respected member of the Burrum Community had his life turned upside down for several years by a legal challenge from this same group just because he chaired a meeting in an old building that did not have a lift! Eventually the gentleman was cleared of wrong doing. Many, many people that I meet who are in fact themselves affected by disabilities, do not support this group and separate themselves very strongly from them.
If you take the time to peruse this information http://www.transport.qld.gov.au/Home/Assistance_and_services/Access_and_mobility/Accessible_regional_bus_stops/
you will see that the design standards for bus shelters is not uniform and bus stop designs can vary but still comply depending on their category. I would appreciate Strewth check facts before circulating speculation and unproven and unfair criticism of Council.
‘An insider’
We’re over-governed in everything these days but it is a shame no one has ever come up with a uniform design for a decent bus shelter. Surely it can’t be that hard?
Sir
Insider has his facts wrong (again). The case concerning the member of the Burrum Chamber of Commerce was nothing to do with the Fraser Coast Regional Council. The case was brought by three members of the community (including the writer) because a community meeting was to be held at a facility which had 16 wooden steps outside to be accessed to where the meeting was to be held. One of the litigants was in a wheelchair and the writer had a walker so neither could get upstairs to the meeting. The discrimination came about because the Chairperson refused to transfer the meeting downstairs where there was a room, simply because the bar was upstairs and people were socialising. Eventually the meeting was transferred downstairs, but the damage and distress to the three people concerned had already been done. The Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission have advised the writer that they consider the decision of the Magistrate was wrong in law, but we had no money to appeal his decision and decided to accept a member of the community’s offer to pay our $13,000 legal fees.
Sheila King
Sheila,
You can’t get found guilty and pay your fine (with someone elses money) and then later go around claiming that you are innocent because you didn’t have the money to appeal. You simply don’t start these organisations if you don’t have the financial backing – it really is as simple as that.