- Target:
- Department of Education NSW - Schools Infrastructure
- Region:
- Australia
The Department of Education NSW- Schools Infrastructure is currently planning a school “upgrade” that involves building two large buildings on the green, open space of Orange Grove Public School, taking away the children’s high quality, natural outdoor play space. Whilst investment in our school is welcome and much needed, the school community is horrified by plans to create the new buildings on the outdoor green open space by not investigating alternative locations for the new buildings. The lovely, grassed, park-like green space makes Orange Grove Public School unique, as one of the only schools in the area that has outdoor space that is not bitumen, earning it the reputation as “the bush school in the city.”
Studies demonstrate the importance of green space for children’s wellbeing. This green space is incredibly important for our children, particularly given that many local children live in apartments or small houses with little to no backyards to play in. The local Saturday market also draws many people in the wider community to visit the school, and the outdoor space is used for people to play, picnic and relax on the grass. It would be a significant loss to our school and our community for any plans to go ahead that build on the open space on the West of the school grounds.
Similarly, there have been major concerns about the process that has been undertaken to date with this proposal, which has been significantly advanced prior to the school community being consulted properly.
We call on the Department of Education to listen to the feedback of the community and to go back to the drawing board on it’s proposal for upgrades to Orange Grove Public School. Schools Infrastructure must understand the significant value of the open green space on the Western side of the school, and ensure that any Masterplan put forward puts the retention of the whole of the existing open space as its highest priority, and investigate alternative locations and designs for the new buildings.
We call on the Department of Education to ensure that any progression of plans to build on the open, green space are halted immediately, and that broad, inclusive community consultation is undertaken. It is of the utmost importance that this consultation is incorporated into the masterplan, and that alternative locations for the proposed buildings are thoroughly explored in good faith.
We have concerns about the validity of heritage assessment and the use of heritage as justification for the proposal to build on the open green space to the Western side of the school, and call on the Department of Education to provide all heritage assessments and research underpinning the heritage listing within the Department of Education to the community.
We call on the Department of Education to ensure that the process going forward is transparent, that information is shared in an open way with all stakeholders, and that the community is able to put forward community and parent representatives for the Project Reference Group that properly reflect the concerns of the community.
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The Save Orange Grove’s green space petition to Department of Education NSW - Schools Infrastructure was written by Save Orange Grove and is in the category Education at GoPetition.