Education Minister Peter Garrett isn’t budging on plans to build a controversial Early Learning Centre at Merewether Heights.
He says there are no safety risks associated with the development, but local parents aren’t convinced.
Education Minister Peter Garrett isn’t budging on plans to build a controversial Early Learning Centre at Merewether Heights.
He says there are no safety risks associated with the development, but local parents aren’t convinced.
When has Mr Garrett visited this site to see the dangers to the children of the school? I don’t think he has! One look and all can see that there are serious flaws in the design of this Early Learning Centre. Since when does any government endorse risk to children? Cars and kids do not mix.
Thanks to NBN tv news for paying attention the community’s effort to get the ELCC built properly at Merewether Heights Public School. As to Mr. Garrett’s opinion of the safety of the proposed ELCC’s 200+ cars use of the school driveway, I frankly don’t care what he thinks.
What I *DO* care about is that the final recommendation of the INDEPENDENT (that is, not bound to a party line!!!!) traffic auditor was to create a “U” shaped, one way in, one way out driveway for the ELCC, whether or not it is to be located at Cedar Crescent or on Scenic Drive: that’s best & safest practice. What I also care about is the INDEPENDENT Site Selection Committee’s recommendation is to MOVE the proposed ELCC to Scenic Drive. They weren’t bound to a party line OR to putting a price tag on safety, either.
What this is all about is PREVENTABLE car accidents. KidSafe Australia AND the RTA say children should have their hands held while crossing driveways and car parks. Mr. Garrett is NOT in a position to contradict or override the INDEPENDENT bodies whose primary purpose is to keep children safe. Shame on him and his department for suggesting that have an extra 200+ cars on the school driveway is the best the government can come up with.
If Peter Garratt visited the site why didn’t he talk to the parents and residents so he would understand our concerns are genuine. Why hasn’t his office failed to write a response to us after nearly 2 months after we met them.
The process has been far from transparent. If it was then we would have been shown the original site selection report, why were the clear and unambiguous recommendation of the Independent Site Selection Committee to relocate the development ignored, why haven’t all of the recommendations of the Traffic Audit been adopted, the DA application would have shown the boundaries of the site so that the council could properly assess the development and teacher would not have been coerced into having to accept something they strongly oppose.
Minister you have been seriously misinformed by your bureaucrats. Your department has signed a contract with a developer that puts profits over the safety of our children. We don’t oppose the ELCC on the school grounds. We don’t want more money. We just want the job done properly.
Mr Garrett, how can you call more than 200 vehicles driving into the current pedestrian access of MHPS safe? This driveway has been closed to parents traffic for more than 20 years for child safety reasons. You make an obviously uninformed statement on NBN news that it is safe for cars to use this access. I request you do come to the school preferably about 3.20pm on a weekday and show the community what you consider ‘safe’ about the current design of this Early Learning Centre.
First the insulation, then the BER, you don’t need another failure.
Peter Garratt has proven himself to be arrogant and completely divorced from reality. I very much doubt that he has been anywhere near Merewether Heights Public School and suspect he like many many others have been seriously miss-informed by Sharon Grierson.
There has never been a clear public exposition of the “method” used for the choice of the the Cedar Crescent site. We as residents and parents understand that the site was chosen by two unqualified persons in the form of the Principal and an Administrator from DET, as then titled, after a brief walk around the school grounds lasting a fraction of a day. Neither of these persons were trained in site assessment and blithely made a choice with no Traffic Flow report or professional input into the decision. The process was flawed from the very outset and the infamy has been compounded by increasing the load of children to be cared for on the site with all the resultant increased risk in hazzards and now a Federal Minister has been duped into believing the process has been “transparent”.
Bad things do happen and the P+C have been absolutely right in trying and continuing to try to improve the safety for the pupils of MHP School. This ill conceived project nedds an enquiry.
Narrow, quiet, safe suburban streets will be turned into crowded, dangerous obstacles for everyone in this area. Some of us have to bring up our kids minus rock star/politician privileges. HAVE SOME BALLS GARRETT!
Due process has not been followed and it is apalling how cavalier senior officials are on this issue, including Peter Garrett despite evidence being provided by appropriate experts that the plan, as it stands is deeply flawed and unsafe. Mr Garrett is either being hugely ill served by his advisers, or is showing extremely bad judgement and should be censured.