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St Joseph’s Church
Equality Impact Assessment
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This impact assessment is being carried out due to planned changes to existing parking practices at Saint Joseph’s church. This process seeks to consolidate the knowledge and understanding we have on parking at Saint Joseph’s.
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Vehicle parking at Saint Joseph’s church. . |
The change from ad-hoc parking to designate only parking bays.
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This is a new practice as non-existed before |
Parking is ad-hoc and across the frontage of the church. This results in the blocking of the main fire escape route and does not allow for a safe off public highway fire muster point.
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The key purpose / objective of this assessment is: |
To provide a safe fire exit point from the church.
To provide a safe fire muster point in the event of fire.
To provide parking for those who officiate in the provision of the Service.
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Lead Person |
Ian Telfer |
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Parish Pastoral Council |
Deacon Roger Crow Corol Johnson Val Jackson Trudie Leavis Nick Staddon
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Other stakeholders – list all involved |
Congregation |
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Start date |
11Th January 2022
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End date |
8th March 2022
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We are undertaking this equality impact assessment because to date there is no safe system for parking in front of Saint Joseph’s church during the provision of Services.
Vehicles are parked ad-hoc on a first come first served basis, this often leads to those who provide the Services with no parking which could impact on the provision of the Service.
A full review of fire safety at the church and the resultant fire risk assessment has identified that this practice of parking is dangerous and impacts upon the implementation and provision of legal requirements.
The main fire escape is blocked by vehicles parking right in front of it.
Access and egress to the side road is blocked thus providing a hindrance to the secondary fire exit, should it be required.
At present it is impossible for any emergency service vehicles to get onto the frontage of the church car park nor access the side and rear of the building.
At present it is impossible to provide a designated fire muster point within the church grounds.
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It is proposed to stop public parking at Saint Joseph’s. The positive changes to the current practice are:
There will be four marked parking bays introduced to the right of the frontage, these will be designated to Priest, Deacon, Server and Sacristan. These are the people involved in the provision of the Services.
The rest of the frontage will be hatched yellow to indicate a no parking area.
This action will guarantee that the main fire exit is kept clear of vehicles
That the emergency services will have full and free access to the building frontage, side and rear.
This will allow for a designated fire muster point.
The possible effects this introduction of parking restrictions could have is with regards to disability.
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Visual research has been undertaken at each Service for a period of 8 weeks. I has been noted that no vehicle parked has displayed a Blue Badge.
No parishioners attending the Services that have alighted from any of the vehicles have been noticed to use walking aids, not that this is a factor just an observation of mobility difficulty.
The only parishioner noted during this period who uses a mobility aid does not drive to the church.
There is no impact upon any staff or volunteers.
There has never been a request to reserve a parking place for anyone with a disability.
There is no disabled parking bay provided at present.
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Consultation has taken place with the Parochial Administrator and all members of Parish Pastoral Council, all are in agreement and support of the changes as they believe it will support the churches fire safety policy whilst at the same time bring some sense to the considered dangerous methods of parking in place at the moment.
The Deacon has publicly announced at the end of Service that parking restrictions will be coming and that any questions, concerns or objections should be directed to himself or any member of the council who also identified themselves at that time.
A notice was put into the Parish weekly newsletter to this same effect which was handed to every attending parishioner.
This newsletter containing the notice was publicly displayed outside the front of the church.
One concern has been raised by a member of the congregation. I was not about disability or any other protected characteristic, but was about the fact that if the fire safety regulations had been wrong for the last twenty years why should they now be changed it was explained to him by two members of the council, he later apologised. He has not raised any issue since this.
We do not have an equalities forum.
Given that this is not a big change and only the stopping of ad-hoc first come first served parking, to bring about both personal and fire safety improvements and compliance with regulations, and that we have consulted with as wide range of people as we believe we have needed to.
We have observed the users and assessed against the protected characteristics.
We have consulted with the council.
We have undertaken historical checks against protected characteristics.
We have publicly announced to the congregation.
We have displayed written notice outside the church.
We have asked for comment and received only one.
Therefore we as a council believe we have consulted on as wide range as is practicable.
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Equality Strand |
Impact |
Reason |
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Age - Older people |
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The majority of the congregation are older people. However the users of the front space at the moment are of all ages as it is first come first served. This area only allows for about 10 cars to be parked. There is a public car park to the side and rear of the church, the majority of vehicle users and volunteers use this car park. No concern or issues over age have been raised in the consultation phase. |
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Disability |
No impact |
No issues or concerns over disability have been raised or observed. There is disabled parking available along the road for Blue Badge holders, and this is used by some. The impact of this is about 3 meters from the current frontage to the road parking. There never has been a provision for disabled parking, thus not deemed a concern as adequate parking is available for disabled drivers.
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Gender |
No impact |
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Race |
No impact |
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Religion or belief
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No impact |
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Sexual orientation |
No impact |
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Gender re-assignment |
No impact |
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Marriage and civil partnership |
No impact |
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Pregnancy and maternity |
No impact
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Non-statutory Group Consideration |
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No other equality issued were raised or identified |
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Socio-economically disadvantaged |
No impact |
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Following our analysis we have decided that our proposal will not negatively or positively impact on any protected characteristics.
We have taken into account all available factors and information into our decision.
We consider our stakeholders to be our staff, our volunteers, our council and our parishioners. We have taken into account all their comment and contributions. We have only received one negative contribution as mentioned above, this did not impact upon any protected characteristic. From this we have concluded that our stakeholders are in agreement with this proposal.
There are no protected characteristics impacted with this proposal.
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We have consulted and we have used all available data and we believe that no resultant action plan is needed for this proposal.
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Parish Pastoral Council: |
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Date: |
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