P and C President calls out Education Department

BY LUCAS BAIRD

The President of the Ultimo Public School’s Parents and Citizens committee, Kevin Langdon, has said it is a “fact” that the government is pushing forward with the school’s redevelopment scheme to nullify the potential impacts of an Upper House inquiry into the plan.

These comments came on Monday, shortly after the Department of Planning released for public exhibition the Education Department’s request to change planning laws to place a temporary school at Wentworth Park.

The temporary school is to accommodate students from the Ultimo Public School while it is rebuilt to hold around 500 more students.

However, a Legislative Council inquiry was called into this plan after parents expressed outrage over the Education Department’s decision to redevelop the school at its current site; rather than build a replacement school at a site on Wattle and Fig Streets.

Mr Langdon said that he believes that the government is releasing this information to rapidly push forward with their current plan so they won’t have to comply with recommendations from the inquiry that might contradict their stance.

“I know for a fact, that the Department is pushing forward with its current site rebuild option because GIPA documents received by us reveal the Department’s stand (sic).”

Mr Langdon has documents acquired through a Public Information request that showed the government knew about the potential backlash and pushed ahead with the planning process speedily to mitigate any resistance.

“There is a very high risk of community dissatisfaction with this decision, which is likely to lead to a concerted campaign to proceed with the purchase of the Wattle, Jones and Fig Street site,” the document reads.

“The Department proposes to mitigate these risks by quickly moving to prepare concept design options for redeveloping the existing Ultimo Public School site.”

When asked by City Hub whether they were trying to move quickly to avoid the inquiry’s recommendations, a Department of Education spokesperson replied that they would consider all of the inquiry’s measures.

“The Department of Education is committed to providing the additional school places required in the Ultimo-Pyrmont area. In order to achieve this, the Department is continuing with the planned redevelopment of the existing Ultimo Public School site,” they said.

“The Department is currently finalising the temporary school design in consultation with the school and wider community.”

The space allocated for the school presented another issue for Mr Langdon, who said that while it could suit the smaller children, pupils in grades five and six would need significantly more space.

Mr Langdon emphasised that that the demountable classrooms are 27 per cent smaller than the student’s current classrooms and claimed they are of inadequate size.

Pyrmont Action Convenor, Elizabeth Elenius, shared Mr Langdon’s concerns about the demountable’s size, but also had an issue with the lack of soundproofing provided by these facilities.

“It is right besides a very noisy, busy street,” Ms Elenius told City Hub. “As is the current school but it designed to cope with that kind of noise. Whether the demountables will have the same sound proofing is doubtful.”

“So the teachers will be trying to teach these children in accommodation that will be affected quite considerably by noise from the street.”

Mr Langdon conceded that the planning measures were not a complete misstep by the government. He said that he was “happy” that Wentworth Park was chosen as the site for the temporary school as it is the most convenient option for parents and that it “marks one of the very few times the Department has actually listened to the community”.

Mr Langdon said the government’s overall actions have been “disheartening” as they continue with “not the best option available, but rather the cheapest”.

It is currently unclear when the students will be moved to the temporary school’s site; according to the Department of Education’s request, the site at Wentworth Park will no longer be needed after 2019.