Image courtesy of Wattletree cottage accessible accommodation, Warburton Victoria
The hills around Marysville were full of these buildings pre the Black Saturday 2010 bushfires. We are not sure how many of them are being re-built, but the new Access to Premises Standard is going to have a significant effect on the new ones and those that are rebuilt. The “technical” part of the standard comes into the Building Code of Australia (BCA) in May 2011. So spare a thought for those owners who lost there business (and probably their home). Inclusion of disabled access for this use of building in the BCA is a good example in the increase in the scope of application of disabled access through the new Access to Premises Standard.
The 1b class was introduced to deal with smaller residential accommodation (Class 3) buildings where the additional fire safety requirements were considered overly onerous for a range of reasons, including cost. The Class 1b category comes with two further restrictions: a maximum of 300m2 floor area; and no more than 12 people.
In summary the following disabled access requirements are applicable to Class 1b buildings, including 1 of 4 short term accommodation dwellings: (more…)
