My name is Robyn Murphy. I am the Convenor of the Scarborough High Open Space Action Group which was formed at a meeting on 20 September 1999.

Before I commence my submission which is made on behalf of the Action Group and a number of individuals, I wish to register our concern that a Councillor from the City of Stirling is on the Committee. This is not a personal reflection on Councillor Spagnolo, rather that the City of Stirling was responsible for rejecting the Minister for Education’s offer to keep facilities and land on the Scarborough High School site for public use. This information was given to us by the Minister at a meeting on 10 November. The Council’s decision occurred without any public consultation. It is because of this decision that we are here today. Furthermore, the Council has made it clear that it intends subdividing most of the land for housing if it is transferred to their control. Presumably Councillor Spagnolo has been involved in discussions and decisions in relation to the Scarborough High School buildings and land. We believe therefore that he has a conflict of interest in the matter of the rezoning application. We wrote to the Chairperson of the WAPC on 29 November requesting his position be filled by another local government authority representative. I wish to reiterate our concerns in this matter for the public record.

The catalyst for the formation of the Scarborough High Open Space Action Group was advice received from the Scarborough & Districts Progress Association that the Minister for Education had reversed his commitment to the public to keep the Scarborough High School gymnasium hall and swimming pool and adjacent land for public open space following the closure of the school.

This commitment was made by Ministerial Press Release on 24 July 1998 and was confirmed in a letter to the City of Stirling on 22 October 1998 (hand a copy of the letter to Dr O’Brien).

At a meeting of the Scarborough & Districts Progress Association on 5 August 1999, George Strickland MLA for Innaloo announced that the commitment had been reversed and that the land would be sold.

This was the first notice the public had received – by that date we now know, an amendment to the Metropolitan Region Scheme had been proposed and included in the Omnibus Amendment we are now discussing. No public announcement of this was received beyond the generic advertisement. Our elected representatives did not inform us, despite it being a clear breach of commitments previously and publicly made. There was an awareness of the sensitivity of this issue, however, this was ignored and information was, we believe deliberately kept out of the public domain to avoid controversy.

When we became aware of the proposed amendment to the MRS there was only two weeks before the close of the submission period. I am sure the WAPC officers will support this, as the majority, if not all of the submissions were received in the last week or two of the submission period. I understand 43 submissions were received which was a result of our efforts to publicise the rezoning through the local newspaper and word of mouth.

The closure of the school was a severe blow to the local community. Families who moved to the area because of the proximity of primary and high schools were and are devastated. The consultation prior to the closure of the school was simply going through the motions, the decision had already been made. Local children now have to travel 5-6 kilometres to alternative schools. These children were previously able to walk or ride their bikes to school, they now have to use public transport or parents have to drive them to Churchlands or Carine High Schools. These two schools are already large and resources both teaching and non teaching, are over-strained. Scarborough High School students have not felt welcome and a number are experiencing settling in problems. Our group is aware of this from our members who have children and others who have contacted us.

No school bus was provided to transport the children to their new schools, public transport or parents private transport now has to be used. The closure of the school has damaged the community, caused disruption to children’s education and placed additional strain on families.

We are convinced that the decision to close the school is a mistake for which future generations will pay. Schools are the heart and soul of the community, it is the place where life long friends are made, futures are decided, and values are formed. How long before the next education "fad" is that small is good, and that the current vogue for "super" schools is recognised as a mistake? It will be too late for Scarborough, if the Government has its way the school will be demolished within weeks and if the rezoning goes ahead, the land will be sold for housing.

We are here to ask for your assistance.

We do not want to lose the school land. We have a vision for the future that includes this land as a community asset. We want the land to remain a Crown Reserve. Our first preference is that it be rezoned to Parks and Recreation. If the process does not allow this at this stage, then we are asking that the rezoning proposal be withdrawn to enable genuine public consultation to occur regarding its use.

We would like the school gymnasium hall to remain on the site for community use. We would like the school buildings to remain and be utilised for another purpose until the powers that be are convinced that a high school is needed in the area. We have submitted a number of suggested uses for the school on the sheet headed "Suggested Future for the Scarborough High School Site".

We are told by the Government’s Family and Children’s Policy Office that families and children are the most important economic and social resource in our community. That strong families lead to strong communities. We are being asked our views on ways that families, communities, government and business can work together to improve the wellbeing of families. I am quoting from a recent Government publication.

And yet, we have an example of the Government ignoring families needs, denying the opportunity for the community to have a real say in what happens in their neighbourhood. We could learn from a recent Tasmanian experiment called "New Beginnings", an exercise in building communities, strengthening families by planning from the bottom up. Using public open space creatively for children to play, youth to gather, families to meet is contributing to a lessening of family breakdown, violence and alienation.

The Scarborough High School buildings, facilities and grounds have provided a community resource since the school was built 40 years ago. It was an active TAFE centre at night for many years, it hosted many community events such as Carols by Candlelight, vacation swimming lessons were held in the school swimming pool. The gymnasium/hall has hosted concerts, dances, theatre productions and is currently being used as a film set. The grounds, in addition to school sports etc. are used extensively by the local community after school hours.

Our group has recently completed a survey to determine community awareness of the closure of the school, its planned demolition and the usage of the land and facilities. The full survey will be presented to the Committee by our member Angela Kaye, later this morning. Angela did a magnificent job in designing and collating the survey questionnaire,. Significant was the finding that 69% of the sample currently use the school site for various purposes. 91% of the sample said that they would use the open space if it were available in the future. 93% of the survey respondents said they want the land to remain in public ownership.

The high school land is one of the few accessible open spaces in the immediate area that can be used by the majority of residents. Other nearby land is steep or natural bush that excludes all but the most able and active people.

It has been recognised by the City of Stirling that there is a shortage of public open space in the suburbs of Scarborough and Doubleview. Cr Bill Stewart at a meeting of the Scarborough & Districts Progress Association on 5 November 19998 produced the following figures:

Doubleview has 2.9% POS

Scarborough has 7% POS which includes the coastal reserve

Furthermore changes to the District Planning Scheme have resulted in a drastic increase in housing densities in the suburbs surrounding the high school.

The maps (one for each committee member) show that the suburbs of Scarborough, Doubleview and Innaloo from the Freeway to the beach from Karrinyup Road to Scarborough Beach Road are zoned R40. What were until recently single residential blocks of between 700 – 1000 sq metres are now being redeveloped into residences requiring only 250 sq metres. Blocks are also being amalgamated to replace two residences with up to five or six units. This is happening at a record rate. According to its 1997/98 Annual report, the City of Stirling recorded the second highest level of building activity in Western Australia. In 1998/99 the City had a 14.7% growth in building licence approvals on the previous year which represents the highest value of construction in any single year recorded. It also had more demolition approvals than any other local authority in WA, with 463 demolitions occurring. The City said that this high rate of building activity is due to the "redevelopment profile" of the area.

The Scarborough and Coastal Wards had over half the total demolitions in 1997/98, the six other wards made up the remainder. The building activity in the suburbs south of the high school is frenetic. It is common sense and good planning to make more public open space available as back yards disappear and the population density increases.

The Government’s "Liveable Communities" Policy Document states that Neighbourhood Parks should be within 400 metres of any dwelling.

This is clearly not the case in Doubleview, Innaloo and most of Scarborough as shown on the map (yellow and green areas are parks and reserves).

We cannot afford to lose any existing open space, the need for green areas in our suburbs can only increase as the population grows. There is an opportunity to make a planning decision that meet the needs of the people and that build community. The term social capital is relevant to this argument. Families live and recreate in the suburbs in which they live. They can only do this if facilities and spaces are provided. Residential communities provide a support network where the sharing of common facilities in culture, recreation and schooling strengthen families and prevent social breakdown. These are important values, ones that must be considered when planning decisions are made. The bottom line is not the dollar but the community, and we all have a responsibility to ensure that the community is healthy, happy, safe and secure.

The Scarborough High School land is used by the community for many recreational activities. One only needs to walk around the school site on the weekend to see children playing basketball, netball, tennis, kicking footballs on the oval, to see people walking their dogs, jogging, walking with their children, practicing their golf swings and even playing croquet.

This informal recreation is in addition to the organised sporting activities such as junior basketball. The Scarborough Junior Basketball Association uses the school gymnasium for training five nights a week, it has 32 teams and 240 members ages between 7 – 22 years. If the gymnasium is demolished along with the other school buildings the Junior Basketball Association will be deprived of its training facility and will lose members as a result. A recent meeting held by our Action Group with other sports associations demonstrated a need for more sporting facilities in the area. There is the opportunity for some of the Scarborough High School site to provide these facilities.

We believe the local people have a right to expect this land to remain available to the community for the future. Our Action Group has a vision for the site that we would like to put before the WA Planning Commission. It is a concept plan that is a result of consultation within and outside our group. We were assisted in this exercise by experts who donated their time and expertise to design a concept plan which you now have before you.

The Concept Plan is for Public Open Space on the Scarborough High School site and combines active and passive space for all residents: young, elderly, able and with disabilities, sports and other active recreation opportunities.

The site has been divided into four areas including a passive area for families and active area for youth and sports area and a garden area. We have also made allowance for a future multi purpose community centre which would provide a focal point for a range of community activities.

The Special Features include the preservation of the view of the ocean from the western end of the site for future generations of residents to enjoy.

The concept plan makes the point that the increasing density of housing in the surrounding area will put existing open space under increasing pressure as urban regeneration will bring people into the district who will be seeking a wide range of recreational activities and opportunities within their immediate location.

To finish, I urge you to reject the proposal to rezone the Scarborough High School land to Urban. If this occurs there is no question that the Government and the City of Stirling will sell the majority of the site for housing and the land will be lost to the community forever. A sound planning decision would be to rezone the land to Parks and Recreation and utilise the land for the benefit of the whole community.

Page created - 14 May, 2000.  Page last updated - 14 August, 2006 15:08:47 +1000