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Doszpot still waiting for answers on the Manuka land swap

Steve Doszpot

STEVE Doszpot says we are no better informed about the future of Telopea Park School and the Manuka Occasional Childcare Centre (MOCCA), as the government continues to bungle a land swap deal.

“Andrew Barr has been unable to answer questions about the Telopea Park School losing its playing grounds to build a new childcare centre and about the old MOCCA site housing apartments, and a new services club,” Steve said.

“In the Legislative Assembly last week, the Chief Minister was unable to confirm how many levels the apartment block might be, confirm definitely that the child care centre would move to the Montgomery Oval site or to another site in Griffith or what will be built on the old Services Club site.

“According to Mr Barr, the Manuka Oval precinct redevelopment has been under consideration for over 13 years and yet the community is none the wiser about if or when any development will proceed.

“Interestingly, the Chief Minister was insistent that a decision on resumption of the school land or the relocation of MOCCA had not been made. That appears to be at odds with the Education Minister Joy Burch who has consistently said in Estimates hearings that the land would be bulldozed during the December school holidays. Joy Burch tried to minimise the impact on the Telopea School community by suggesting the tennis courts that are planned for demolition were not often used.

“This land swap saga has typified the government’s lack of consultation and poor handling of many issues right across Canberra,” Mr Doszpot concluded.

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One Response to Doszpot still waiting for answers on the Manuka land swap

Charlie says: 10 August 2015 at 12:31 pm

This is so heartbreaking.

Gambling and drinking given priority over school land? Maybe we should again spend more government funds telling kids to be healthy and active (http://www.healthyactive.gov.au/internet/healthyactive/publishing.nsf/Content/schoolcommu_resourcekit.pdf/$File/schoolcommu_resourcekit.pdf) yet take away resources – makes sense – right? Children at this school often travel more than 20km to attend, and are not able to get exercise via walking or bike riding to school, and need to have resources to stay fit. This school also has one of the best up and coming tennis players in the ACT in year 3, by no exaggeration.

All kids at this school will no longer have any access (kindy – to year 10) to play tennis, or have future use of the fields/space. This school already doesn’t have any Sunsmart shade area for the 7-10’s and the overall play equipment is less than satisfactory. Over the past two years, the children intake as increased at this school by up to 25% at the kindy level, and these additional children who will move up through the year are not being accounted for in the projections.

What is going on here? As a community, we cannot accept the lack of transparency and accountability, especially when it is in favour of gambling over education and health.

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