With a commitment to providing equitable access to all residents and visitors to the City, Council has installed innovative trail access gates in two highly frequented parks.
Built and designed in consultation with a local engineering firm, the gates overcome access issues for people with limited mobility.
Council’s Manager Health and Aged Services, Neville Kurth, said various means have been used by authorities in parks, gardens and open spaces across the City to block motorbike access to pedestrian trails.
“Unfortunately, these strategies have also prevented access to the trails by some of the people for whom they were provided,” he said. “The traditional chain method is effective in keeping motorcycles out, but it can also restrict people in wheelchairs or scooters, parents with prams, the elderly, and those who can’t lift their leg high enough to get over it.
“As well as creating a barrier, some of the strategies are a hazard for all pedestrians, particularly at night or in fading light.
“The trail access gate is a fantastic invention that has overcome both these problems. It allows access for everyone, but still prevents access to those things we don’t want, specifically motorbikes.”
Council’s Access Coordinator, Viv Shepherdson, said City of Whittlesea Development Engineers, Parks staff, the Metro Access officer and members of the Whittlesea Disability Network worked together to develop the gate design.
“The wide variety of mobility aids and the varying dimensions of devices used by people of all abilities needed to be considered in developing the design of the trail access gate,” she said. “We ensured most devices could make a complete turn within the gate structure, and that it was easy to manoeuvre whilst inside the gated compound.”
Viv Shepherdson said that while the cost involved in, and the design behind the gate was not dramatic, the result is highly effective.
“It is a simple, cost effective and practical solution that provides maximum benefit of access to all,” she said.
Parks Victoria is now working with Council to trial the gate design in one of its parks in Whittlesea.
