Council acts fast on hand rails

KATINA CURTIS

AN 88-year-old man’s complaint about having to drag himself up the stairs of a cabin on Blowhole Point has prompted Kiama Council to install handrails throughout the holiday park.

Trevor Curtis, from Sylvania, stayed in one of the holiday cabins with his daughter Rhonda during March.

Mr Curtis has had five knee operations and uses a walking frame.

“I had to crawl up seven steps on my hands and feet because the council refuse, despite requests, to put up a hand rail,” he said.

“This is dangerous also for small children and costly should they fall and break a leg. The units are great, but the stupidity of council is hard to understand.”

Rhonda sent a letter of complaint to the council, saying the situation had been very distressing for her father.

“Obviously none of you have ever taken your elderly parent on holidays and have had to watch as your precious father crawls and struggles to get up and down a set of set stairs each time we wish to go out,” she wrote.

She said she had found a temporary solution by pulling the cabin’s table over the edge of the stairs, but that her father could not move it by himself.

Russell Park, from Kiama Council, said he had been responsible for the council-run holiday parks since July last year and this was the first time the issue had been raised.

“As soon as I found out I moved to put the railings in,” he said.

“The steps were built to Australian standards and were not high enough to legally require hand rails, which is why they weren’t built with them in the first place.”

He said he had written to Rhonda apologising for any inconvenience and to inform her and Mr Curtis the hand rails were being installed.