CHAOS, in the form of traffic and parking issues, has set the Deakin Residents’ Association against a proposal to build an early learning centre for 120 children.

President of five years, John Bell, 81, explains the association is concerned the centre will bring traffic and parking chaos.

“The proponent – St Luke’s Anglican Church – is not providing the minimum parking on-site, relying instead on street parking,” he said.

“We have these little, tiny, narrow streets; you cannot possibly park on both sides.

“Now, this new early learning centre block is on an island between Macartney Crescent and Newdegate Street. The answer they have come up with is they will just ban parking outside the residences, all the way around.”

Bell said this was taking away the right for people in that area to have visitors or contractors parking their vehicles outside their home.

“To make it more interesting, the garbage collectors won’t be able to get through with their trucks if people are parked on both sides, because it will be too narrow,” he says.

“And it won’t just be the garbage collectors that are impacted, it will be the fire brigade and emergency services, too. The Woolworths delivery truck wouldn’t even be able to get through.”

The association’s involvement began by commenting on the 6000-square-metre development application in December 2021.

“It’s a big site at the old St Luke’s Anglican Church, in the middle of a residential area between Newdegate Street and Macartney Crescent,” he said.

“The church hasn’t been used for seven years, and they also have on this site two residences, which are apparently occupied by clergy.”

Bell said the ACT Planning and Land Authority (ACTPLA) approved the development application on September 12, 2022.

“There had been revisions to the proposal during the assessment period which we were not informed of.

“We appealed the decision to ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal in October, 2022.”

Bell said the people who want to do this think they’re going to make money, but it’s no secret that the Deakin Residents’ Association was challenging this development.

“They’ve hired expensive lawyers, and we’re just a bunch of residents,” he said.

“We do have strong support from all the residents in the area; something like 50 residents have come to us and asked us to represent them.

“A number of them have contributed money to pay for the cost, which shows you how concerned they are.”

Bell said the ideal fix would be to stop the early learning centre from being built.

“There are other things that could be done to this site that we would be much happier with,” he said.

“I think there are a number of possibilities for what should be built on the site. The church should just hand back its concessional lease if it’s not going to use it for church purposes.

“Then the government could subdivide the site into blocks and sell them off, but our practice is not to make alternative suggestions because there may be other things that the church would like to do.

“We don’t pick fights with everybody who wants to do development. We just don’t have the resources, but this one is a bit of a challenge. We just think it’s not appropriate for the area, it’s ridiculous.”

He said the problem was that ACT parking requirements were out of date. 

“It has a formula for so many spaces for every child, so it assumes that staffing is related to number of children, which is not unreasonable. However that doesn’t reflect the reality,” Bell said.

“You have to cater for teachers, students and teachers’ aides.”

But, Bell said, there was a shortage of teachers for early learning centres and the area is already oversupplied with such facilities.

“There are about seven within a couple of kilometres and they all have vacancies,” he said.

“In order to recruit teachers you need to provide places for student teachers to come and learn. But they also need a parking space, and then you have gardeners, painters, maintenance people and you have people coming in to help with food.”