Ultimo school pays the ultimate price

Ultimo school pays the ultimate price

By Leanne Elahmed
In six months, the cost to remediate a contaminated Council depot has more than doubled, according to the NSW government, ultimately costing the students of Ultimo Public School a new school at the site.
The Department of Education confirmed its decision came after “independent expert advice” revealed the remediation of the Wattle, Jones and Fig streets site would cost over $50 million.
The unforeseen decision surprised parents, locals and the City of Sydney Council, as the option to relocate and rebuild the new school was accepted in December last year.
But, the new school site was never officially confirmed, and Lord Mayor Clover Moore criticised the state government’s decision, which has left many confused.
“The Education Minister’s broken promise is failing the parents and children of Pyrmont and Ultimo. This betrayal from Adrian Piccoli leaves parents and children from across the inner-city in limbo,” Clr Moore said.
“Since the Minister’s announcement in December that the purchase of the land would go ahead, our staff have tried repeatedly to finalise the sale.”
Ultimo Public School P&C spokesperson, Bill d’Anthes, expressed frustration that the plan fell through after the community had campagined for the site over a number of years.
“We spent all this time doing our homework and planning and to find that it drops out is disgusting really,” he said.
Mr d’Anthes said the decision has caused parents to think about alternative schools for their children.
“We heard from someone who is going to take their child out and they’re studying right now where they’re going to send their child,” he said.
Mr d’Anthes explained that people don’t want to put their kids through the process of being sent to another school while a new school is being built on the existing site.
Pyrmont Community Group president, Jean Stuart, said she believes there is no adequate planning being done for Australia’s most densely populated area.
“We are not happy about the idea of knocking the school down and building the school in a high-rise development for 700 students when the Bays Precinct is coming on line in the next 20-30 years and the school population is going to increase accordingly,” she said
“And we need to be planning ahead.”
The Wattle Street depot was not only to become the site of the school, but also a childcare facility holding up to 80 children.
Independent Sydney MP, Alex Greenwich expressed concerns about selling more inner-city public assets.
“We need to know how a big enough school can be built on this constrained site and have capacity for the future. What happens to the promised childcare that is sorely needed in this precinct?” he said.
The community has called for the remediation report to be made available for the public to see. Mr Greenwich has backed these calls, stating the government must take responsibility for facilities like schools and parks.
“I support the community calls for the remediation reports to be made public – surely the department knew the remediation costs when the Wattle Street agreement was made?” he said.
The state government has been questioned about the withdrawal of its decision to build the new school after the elections. Clr Moore said, “was the Minister ever serious about this purchase, or was it simply an attempt to make the issue go away in the lead up to the March election?”
Ms Stuart also said she thought the plan was to sideline the issue of the school until the elections were over.
“We now believe it was an election ploy to promise us the school on the Wattle Street depot site,” she said.
The Department of Education explained in a statement that full remediation of the contaminated site, plus costs for the site’s acquisition and construction of the new school would cost more than $177 million. This is in comparison to a standard primary school which would only cost $15 million to $30 million.
Mr d’Anthes believes if the new estimated costs to remediate the site are indeed as they are reported then it should be done regardless.
“We’ve been warning them since ‘97 that that area was polluted but they just left it there, and you get water run-off and wind blowing this stuff around. If it’s harmful they need to get that stuff out of there, we live here,” Mr d’Anthes said.
The Department confirmed its plans to rebuild a new high-rise school at its current site would begin immediately.
A community meeting to discuss the future of the school is taking place as City Hub went to print.

 

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