Pedestrian safety and accessibility was a key message behind the Lords Place south Future City project, however the project has not included a footpath upgrade or means of safely crossing the road beyond widening the refuge near the roundabout.
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Aging and Access committee chairman Steve Peterson was surprised when footpath leveling was not included in the beautification project and said it's a footpath that needs more care.
"As a quadriplegic in a power wheelchair that footpath could be improved," Cr Peterson said.
"Staff have told me that after the current trial, the plan is to make adjustments to the level of the footpath and that would be the appropriate time to replace it.
"I personally would love to see the footpath elevated so that we get rid of the step access to many of the shops that you can't get into unless you can get over a step."
A safe means of crossing the road in the middle of the block has also not been provided and pedestrians can be seen every day trying to duck through what are sometimes narrow gaps in the two way traffic. Before the road was narrowed many of those pedestrians used to cross one lane then wait in the middle for a safe break before crossing, trusting that any oncoming cars had space to move around them.
Due to the road narrowing there is no space for a refuge and Cr Peterson is not aware of a plan to introduce a pedestrian refuge to the upgrade beyond widening of the existing refuge near the roundabout.
However, he said if it's determined later that a crossing is needed, like the new crossing in the Lords Place north upgrade, then it could be considered in the future.
"I've been told that narrowing the lanes and slowing traffic and widening the pedestrian refuges have increased pedestrian safety when we are crossing the road," he said.
The section, between Kite and Summer streets, was just one of many that he said needed improvement.
Among the streets the Central Western Daily has had complaints about and heard reports of people tripping over cracks and bumps caused by tree roots is Anson Street between Kite and Summer streets.
"The last council had plans to replace that footpath but also replace the trees that are damaging the footpath but there was significant public concern about replacing those quite beautiful trees so that project was on hold as council tries to repair the footpath as best as they can," Cr Peterson said.
"Under the Future City project will probably be the next time but as long as those trees are there it will definitely be a challenge in terms of what we can permanently do.
"It will be interesting what happens because the trees in Lords Place were constructed in these giant water-soluble cups that apparently are going to stop the roots from growing out and destroying the footpath nearby.
"It will be interesting to see how that works. Those trees in Anson Street are natural trees, they won't live forever ... but of course that could be a long time away.
"They look pretty healthy to me, they look beautiful."
Footpath works in Orange. Stars: Completed in the last financial year. Yellow: Works planned for this financial year. Purple: Listed in draft 2023/24 budget.
Cr Peterson said the Aging and Access Committee has a list of footpaths it liaises with the council about.
"And yellow paint on the footpaths only goes so far in terms of making them more walkable," Cr Peterson said.
"You know where they spray the yellow paint on to show where cracks are, I've had someone ask if that was supposed to be like an Indigenous artwork or something in one particular area and I said no it's just a footpath that needs to be replaced.
"There's a long list, more money is being put into footpaths than ever ... but even so there's a long list with some of those footpaths being very old. It's something that we always need to put a focus and money in to."
Another issue is in some areas of town the footpath ends on one side of the road but resumes on the other side forcing pedestrians to cross the road.
"Before my wheelchair wouldn't blink an eye, now it does make things a bit more difficult," Cr Peterson said.
"Some of the road crossings are new and great and some of them are steep and precarious.
"Amongst the committee we have some maps where we advise people with lower mobility to travel."
He said it's also important to take the need for accessible footpaths into account when developing new areas.
"I think another thing that council needs to have a very good eye on is when there are new developments, like say in North Orange and Shiralee, the footpaths are part of the development," Cr Peterson said.
"There are certainly places in Orange, say out at West Orange where there are no footpaths because when that development was approved long ago there wasn't a requirement for developers to put in the footpaths."
Cr Peterson said there's been about 20 footpath upgrades in the past financial year and there's another 10 that will be done in the financial year to June.
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