Topic: Disability Parking and access at Cooroy School Applicant: Deaire Pecora Speakers: Deaire Pecora

Hello, my name is Deaire Pecora. I was born and raised in Cooroy, as was my dad before me, and I'm now raising three children there as well. 31 Years ago, when I started at the school, my parents petitioned for a disability car park to be put in the school so I could enter and exit safely. In 31 years. The car park has not changed. The school has grown, doubled in size, they have won awards for their disability education and access to education, but the car park has not changed. The school has confirmed with me that there are six parents. This year alone needing a disability car park. And that's just not enough. There's one. In the front of the school. It's a three minute walk from that car park to the prep room alone and then another minute to the main part of the school. Now two to three minutes doesn't sound like much to someone who doesn't have to consider it, but for someone like me who has to cross a road, go down an embankment, cross another emergency access road, then go up a hill to pick up their child, that's a consideration. My worst little groggy's way. It's really important to me that it's understood why it's significant that people with disabilities are able to speak about this issue. It's easy to say that yes, we'll commit to review this and make you need to understand that. It's important for us to be able to access the school for the sake of our children and to be involved in their education. I think it's a little bit horrendous that the car park hasn't changed in 31 years. I mean, what's going on? Main Roads has said that it meets the minimum requirements and that's just not true in my opinion. If you actually walked that path from the school to the car park, you would understand why. When cars start lining up for the quick pick up and drop off, they block off the entrance to the car park. They literally start lining up after the zebra crossing, which is where the entrance to the disability car park is. And that means that if I'm five minutes late to getting there, lined I get stuck behind cars. The way to the traffic lights. And it can take up to 15 to 20 minutes for that line to disperse before I'm able to get into the car park. That's not okay either. We're one of the only schools in the area that has one entrance for quick drop off and pick up and the main car park. Why has that not changed? These are just things that I'm trying to change and if someone doesn't say something it's never going to happen which is clearly what's happened in the last 31 years. I'm committed to town my improving and being accessible to all people with disabilities because I'm proud of it and if I don't say something and do something now then it's not going to change and there may be people that consider not sending their kids to that school because they can't access it. So that's why I'm here today.

So my first question is, how exactly does the parking at Cooroy Primary School meet the minimum requirements for disability access? According to Main Roads.

Thank you. That kind of leads very well into my second question, and this is more of a historical question. So why has Council allowed the parking at the primary school to not be reviewed in 31 years, and how does this meet and quality rights?