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MAYOR SUPPORTS MELVILLE SCHOOL PURCHASE
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Council by Joel Chan May 23, 2003 MELVILLE mayor Katherine Jackson has lent her support to local residents seeking to turn the soon-to-be-defunct Melville Primary School site into public space. Mrs Jackson yesterday said the council had not ruled out purchasing the site from the Education Department as they had not discussed the issue internally. "It is certainly manageable to me and I'm for it," she said. "But whether the other elected members want to do anything about it is another issue." The Education Department held a special stakeholder consultation meeting on Tuesday night and proposed a new school to be built on the old school oval. The remaining 3.8ha of land would be sold for about $6million but public groups called for the Melville Council to purchase the land as they were afraid the site would be turned into a housing development. Mayor Jackson said it was a wonderful and rare opportunity for the council to get a large piece of public space. However, she said she did represent the views of all elected members, who had approached the issue with caution and reservation. In the meantime, she urged the public to put a strong case to the council to purchase and establish the land. Speaking on Murdoch Radio News yesterday, Melville City Ratepayers and Residents Association spokesperson Alan Brown said residents were concerned about the loss of public open space in an already densely populated area. "They are also concerned that the Government is using the site to refinance the education facilities by selling off the land for further housing," Mr Brown said. Mrs Jackson agreed and said the money from the sale of the land would probably go to funding the State Budget's $92 million increase in education and training. "The new school would probably get some of the money but not 100 per cent of it," she said. |
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