Students, staff and families at St Mary’s Primary School, Lancefield, have rallied together to see the permanent closure of a road dividing the school’s campus.
Situated at 20-28 Chauncey Street, the school’s campus is split in two by Raglan Street, separating it into an east and west section.
To maintain the safety of students on campus during school hours, the school implemented boom gates at either end of the campus boundaries 35 years ago, closing Raglan Street off to traffic between 8.30am and 3.30pm on school days.
Students are currently given access to the west side of the school, which consists of basketball courts and a play area, during recess and lunch, with staff supervision becoming ‘a drain on resourcing’.
School officials said St Mary’s was expecting a boom in enrolments in the coming years and was the only Catholic primary school servicing the eastern corridor of the Macedon Ranges.
“We are having a lot of enrolment enquiries, and at the moment with the capacity that we have, we can’t take families,” principal Julie McDougall said.
“Growth in Romsey, with young families moving to the area, is phenomenal, so there will be more of a need for a Catholic option for schools.”
Master planning suggested new school buildings should be built on the land west of Raglan Street to accommodate the growing number of students, however, safe student movement throughout the school remains a problem due to the road division.
“For a country school, we’re really landlocked. You would assume that we would have lots of space, but it’s the road and the connected land that gives us the space and we can’t access that without having staff on supervision,” Ms McDougall said.
To combat the problem, the school proposed the permanent closure of the section of Raglan Street adjacent to the school in place of the current boom gates.
The road and road reserve abutting the school would be transformed into permanent school grounds, creating a secure yard for the students.
The decision to close the road falls under the jurisdiction of the Macedon Ranges Shire Council, the State Government, and by extension, the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, DEECA.
Macedon Ranges Shire Council determine whether to keep the road operational for local traffic as road managers – however, it does not decide the ultimate use of the land should the road be discontinued.
Council maintained it was ‘comfortable’ that the daily volume of about 100 vehicles on the section of Raglan Street ‘will not negatively impact other surrounding streets, if the community supports the proposed road’.
The section of Raglan Street that St Mary’s hopes to use is Crown land, which the State Government governs.
DEECA confirmed if council discontinues the road, it would look to issue a licence to the school while their application to purchase it is investigated.
“This is something that we’ve worked on as a school community for five years, so to get this far and be so close, it’s exciting,” Ms McDougall said.
Council will vote on the issue in the coming months after community consultation and submissions are received.
Submissions close at 5pm on August 28. For more information, people can visit .
