BY CHRISTOPHER HARRIS
The Ultimo School community braved the stormy weather last Wednesday December 16 to protest outside state parliament, demanding a larger capacity primary school than the one slated for their neighbourhood.
One hundred school students protested outside Town Hall the previous Monday, calling for the council and the state government to come back to the drawing board and plan together for a bigger school.
Labor Councillor Linda Scot successfully passed a motion at that night’s council meeting for the City to reenter negotiations with the Education Department to sell council owned land at Fig and Wattle street to build a bigger school.
As previously reported by City Hub, the redevelopment of the local school was canned when the state government back flipped on an election promise to build a new school for 1000 students on a site owned by the City of Sydney.
The Government said that high remediation costs made the plans for a new school unviable.
But locals criticised the move, and said that the government had effectively gold plated the estimated remediation, with another estimate quoting a significantly cheaper price for the work.
In September, the Department revealed plans to build a new school on the existing site for 700 pupils, which was opposed by the local community, because they said it was not large enough for area’s growing population.
The council vote on Monday means that Lord Mayor Clover Moore will be tasked with commencing negotiations with the NSW Government over the sale of the Fig and Wattle Street Depot for the provision of school and childcare facilities in Ultimo.
The resolution said that the final sale price would have to be brought before council again.
President of the Ultimo Public School Parents and Citizens’ Association Janine Barrett said the community did not want to have to vacate the existing site before another school was built. She said that students should not be subjected to the same situation as in 2003 which bussed students to another school. According to Ms Barrett, students lost in excess of an hour of education a day under this arrangement.
She said the students rallying showed how important the issue is.
“That show of support is important to get the message through to council and local government that we need to get back to the drawing board, and they have to work to get together for the sake of our children.”
At the rally last Wednesday, Ms Barrett said that the government had “reneged” on its promise for a new school.
“We implore the Minister and his Department to come to the party, and offer hope to our devastated community and reenter into meaningful and productive negotiations for the school they promised us exactly one year ago, the school that will serve us for many generations to come,” she said.
“Let us send the message to the department that we will continue to fight against redevelopment of Ultimo Public School on the current site and we will continue to make this kind of noise until our community is listened to.”
