Grumpy reader ANNE QUINN, of Wanniassa, says 43 years of community access was extinguished without a thought for the locals when an unannounced two-metre-high, locked fence surrounded the oval at St Mary MacKillop College.

ONE day we’ll wake up to find that one of the best things about living in Canberra has disappeared.

Access to open, connected green spaces in our residential areas is one of Canberra’s many attractions, but it’s being threatened as more and more schools enclose their ovals with padlocked fences.

Schools are part of the local community and their ovals, whether attached to government or non-government schools, are an integral part of our communal green space. We meet with friends at the local oval to kick a footy. We run there to keep fit. We take our kids to throw a frisbee. Our ovals contribute to a sense of community and support our physical and mental health.

Local ovals are also part of the network of open tracts of interlinked green space throughout our suburbs. These tracts provide unimpeded walkability and have significant aesthetic value.

But this loved suburban space is being taken from us, one fence at a time.

The recent construction of a two-metre-high fence around the oval at St Mary MacKillop College in Wanniassa is just one example. It is an indication that something has failed in the ACT planning system and, this time, in the Catholic education system, too.

The fact that a school situated on land within a suburban community can deny public access to its oval is at odds with the ACT government’s planning strategy in which Canberra’s “spatial foundations of liveability” including “open (green) space and recreation areas woven through where people live and work” are held up as key strengths.

Other phrases repeated in the government’s “Better Suburbs Statement”  are “community connectedness”, “liveable suburbs” and “green open spaces”.

The government must be able to hold all land-users – government and non-government schools included – accountable to this vision. Individual ACT citizens certainly are. 

Quite rightly, homeowners in Canberra are not permitted to erect front fences at their homes as this would detract from the “attractive interlinked environment for pedestrians”. Shouldn’t this also apply in multiples to our suburban schools?  

The failure of the ACT planning systems is bad enough, but it does not explain the failure of the Catholic education authorities. In the case of St Mary MacKillop College, a complete lack of community consultation about the perceived problems and potential solutions at the oval shows a breathtaking disregard for the community in which the school is situated.

Forty three years of community access was extinguished without a thought for the locals who have used and loved the space during that time. And this happened at the end of a year in which COVID-19 and lockdown made the local school oval even more precious as a place for socially distanced recreation. The fence has left many local Wanniassa residents devastated.

The school says dog excrement on the oval was the primary issue, with trespassing during school hours and vandalism cited as occasional problems. Presumably, there is no issue with young students straying on to a busy road, one possible reason for a fence, as the school caters for year 7 to 9 students.

Understandably, the school needs to deal with these issues – they are annoying, inconvenient and, to the extent they occur, they compromise student and staff safety. However, the response is totally disproportionate.

There are many other more constructive and community-minded approaches that would solve these problems. Instead, the Catholic education system has opted to lock the community out and, in doing so, has fractured an unwritten social compact.

You see, while the school has solved its problems by fencing the oval, locals must still put up with the school’s negative impact on them. Cars crowding nearby streets every school day at drop-off and pick-up time is just one example.

Given the speed and timing of the fence’s construction (in the two weeks before Christmas), some locals now view the fence as a fait accompli undermining the opportunity to challenge it. Some argue that we can’t change it because it’s happening at schools all around Canberra.

However, if we never question and challenge things that have already happened we will definitely wake up one day to find that one of the best things about living in Canberra has disappeared.

“Grumpy” is an occasional column in which readers are invited to let off steam. While this is a bit longer than normal, submissions of around 400 words are welcome to editor@citynews.com.au