I HAD the pleasure of visiting the new Ocean Keys shopping centre on Friday and was very pleased with the long-awaited upgrade.
Unfortunately, the designers still manage to continue to make access for the community difficult. For example, the main entrance on Ocean Keys Boulevard, adjacent to the busy road crossing walkway, used to have steps as well as two ramps to reach the shopping mall.
The same entrance now just has three access points, all with steps. The two ramps have been replaced by one and moved some 35 metres further down the road towards the Commonwealth Bank.
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READ NOWAs I sat having a cup of coffee, I watched countless mothers with prams, people with shopping trolleys along with seniors struggle to enter and exit the new entry point.
Good Samaritans were actually helping young mothers carry their prams up and down the steps. One woman actually had help to lift her shopping trolley down the steps to go across the road to her car.
In a short time, people started to abandoned their shopping trolleys at the top of the steps and remove their shopping. This resulted in the entrance becoming blocked with an ever-growing number of empty shopping trolleys.
During this same period, I observed several people in wheelchairs asking people where the ramp was now. I also took a walk up to the ramp access, only to find this was also blocked with empty shopping trolleys and the new automatic sliding doors do not fully open owing to the restricted width of the entrance.
So well done designers, and it’s pleasing to see the City of Wanneroo’s Disability Access and Inclusion plan is working well’