HOW many childcare centres is too many childcare centres?
For Wallan residents along Stanley Street, that is the question they have been asking, which has now been received by the Mitchell Shire Council (MSC) as part of their Community Questions and Hearings Committee meeting last Monday night.
Resident Alison Hook fronted the meeting on behalf of the residents of Stanley and Duke Streets, of which 29 residents are currently objecting to a proposal to build a childcare centre at 2 Stanley Street, which would house up to 19 staff and 92 children.
Mrs Hook referenced multiple issues in a letter seen by The North Central Review, which included traffic and safety, noise, duplication of infrastructure and planning procedures.
“One major issue that would arise if this project were to go ahead, is an extensive increase in traffic on both Duke and Stanley Streets and the potential for dangerous levels of congestion,” she wrote.
“As the majority of the planned 20 parking spaces are likely to be taken up by staff members, it leaves parents and caregivers of up to 92 children to park on the streets fronting the property. This could easily be upwards of 60 plus cars, twice a day.
“The street infrastructure of both Duke and Stanley Streets is not equipped for this purpose, with both having unfinished road edges and poor parking space.”
One of Mrs Hook’s key concerns was the number of childcare centres directly adjacent to surrounding streets in Wallan, with 10 in the surrounding area.
“I would ask the council to also consider the number of existing and partially developed childcare centres in the surrounding streets,” she said.
“There is a recently completed North Star Learning Centre at 54-56 Stanley Street and a large early learning centre under construction next to Wallan Dental, which is also on Stanley Street.
“The traffic and noise impacts of these planned facilities are yet to be fully tested.
“I would be disappointed if council chose to allow yet another project to begin without fully assessing if it is needed in this particular location.
“Adding an additional childcare centre in such close proximity to these existing ones does not seem necessary or sensible. Surely there are other locations in the outer reaches of Wallan where new childcare facilities could be located, helping to spread them around the broader Wallan township, rather than concentrating them all near the central Wallan area, and putting additional pressure on the Watson Street corridor.”
Responding to Councillor Claudia James’ query at last Monday night’s Community Questions and Hearings Committee as to whether a reduction to 50 children would be sufficient, Mrs Hook said there were still some underlying factors which could still affect residents long-term.
“It would reduce some of the traffic concerns, but I still think there is an underlying question about the selection of suitable sites for childcare centres in Wallan overall,” she said.
“I know there’s been a dearth in the past, when my children were young, it was difficult to find childcare, and I certainly understand that there was the need for some sort of redress in that, but until some of the other ones that are currently under construction or awaiting construction are developed… without fully understanding the impact they’ve had on traffic or noise is a bit pre-emptive.”
Mrs Hook added that the move would greatly reduce the ambience of the location.
“In this location, there’s not enough road infrastructure. I’m not advocating for more to be built. Most of the people living here chose the street because it’s a dead-end, it’s quiet and not overly built up, so we don’t get a lot of through traffic. Putting a childcare centre there would destroy the ambience of the quieter street,” she said.
As a result of Mrs Hook’s objection, the committee recommendation was that the submissions and questions relating to the planning permit be considered, with officers preparing a report at the next Council meeting.
This was carried unanimously by MSC and is set to be heard at the council meeting next week.
Mrs Hook said she was happy with the response provided by MSC councillors last Monday night.
“I was pleased with the response they gave and the questions they asked. The local councillors were asking questions to say, ‘can you explain to councillors from the other wards what it is like in Wallan’, so they have a strong understanding of the issues that I’m concerned about,” she said.
“Council needs to have a wider focus on this, because otherwise, there will be an over-concentration of resources which forces more traffic and more congestion into areas and streets that were never designed for that kind of traffic.”
