Deaire Pecora

0:52 Diyaa Pecora: Hello. My name is Diyaa Pecora. I was born and raised in Croyd, as was my dad before me, and I'm a senior student. 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. 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.

2:05 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 a change, but 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. And 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, I get stuck behind cars that are lined up all 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.

3:21 That's not OK 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 my town 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.

4:01 Mayor Wilkie: Thank you, Deanne. We will have some questions a bit later on. We'll have some answers for you. Thank you.