$15k disability access audit for Clarence beaches

By Tim Howard

A charity devoted to making Australian beaches more accessible for disabled people will get up to $15,000 of ratepayers money to audit Clarence Valley beaches.

At its first meeting of the year, Clarence Valley Council approved a notice of motion from Cr Karen Toms to engage Accessible Beaches Australia to audit the accessibility of Main Beach Yamba, Main Beach Minnie Water and Turners Beach, Yamba.

The findings of the audit should be in a report to the May council meeting.

Most councillors supported the proposal, but there was some questioning of why the report came to council as a notice of motion.

Cr Greg Clancy quizzed Cr Toms, about the need for a notice of motion instead of council receiving a report from the council’s Access Committee.

And during debate Cr Ian Tiley linked Cr Toms bringing a NOM, instead of a committee report, to the September council election.

Cr Toms said her NOM was a result of recommendations from the committee, which she chairs and has sat on since 2008.

consultation for the council’s Disability Action Plan last year, 66% of people who took part said there should be better disabled access to beaches.

Cr Toms said members of council’s Access Committee were eager to advance improvement to accessibility at several beaches.

At its August 23 meeting the Access Committee moved, that: Clarence Valley Access Committee advise council to engage Accessible Beaches Australia to conduct an audit on Yamba Main Beach, Minnie Water and Turners and identify any other beaches that may be a suitable, in addition.

Cr Toms said while the council had a DIAP and work had been done around beaches, it had not improved access to them.

Poor access for disabled people to Valley beaches has been on council’s books the best part of a decade with the report referencing the matter coming to council in 2016.

During community

“The Access Committee acknowledges that the current Operational Plan includes delivering accessible pathways to a viewing platform at Pippi Beach (note not access) and planning and seeking funding for Turners Beach (all accessible improvements). Future improvements to include Main Beach Yamba and Minnie Water Main Beach,” the report noted.

“The Access Committee understands many of our beaches are not suitable due to high wave action and erosion.

“However, there are many components that make a beach accessible that need to be explored which is why we are seeking support for this motion.”

Cr Toms defended the cost of the audit, saying it was a “small amount of money”.

“This is a very small amount of money, possibly $10,000, maybe up to $15,000,” she said.

“But it could actually save us a lot of money because we haven’t been successful in any grant funding to do any works on our beaches, but this audit could possibly be the difference.”

It was also a point raised by the motion’s seconder Cr Debrah Novak, who said having this type of audit ready would make grant applications easier.

Cr Tiley was not won over.

“While the project is indeed very deserving, so will be a number of others that we will need to consider over the next few months,” he said.

Cr Toms disagreed with Cr Tiley’s point and said it misrepresented her.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” she said. “But he has certainly implied wrongdoing by me and breaking rules and that is not correct.”

Cr Steve Pickering supported Cr Tom’s NOM.

Next Mr Mayor I’ll be speaking in support of Cr Toms’ NOM.

He said the matter had been to the Access Committee multiple times and was the number one requirement or concern with disability access in our LGA.

“We’ve had a NOM put forward by Cr Kingsley back in the day, for beach access,” he said.

“We’ve had reports to council for beach access, we had requests for grant funding for beach access.

“We’ve had recommendations made by the Access Committee for beach access. Still we have nothing. We have no beach access.”

We have a huge number of people with accessibility needs which we’re not meeting as a council.

He said the NOM should expedite the process of getting an audit done on some beaches for disability access.

“It’s $15,000 which will go to an audit of three locations to allow people to access our beaches and hopefully and maybe get into the water,” he said.

“Wouldn’t that be amazing if people with access needs could actually get into the water. That would fantastic.”

Cr Toms said there were more than 4 million Australians with a disability, so it was essential the Clarence Valley had beaches that were accessible to them.

Council voted 8-1 for the audit with Cr Tiley against.