Harrison Childcare land sold

Written by Alan Kerlin Friday, 26 June 2009 15:43

The Gungahlin Community Council welcomes the successful sale of land for a new childcare centre at Harrison by the ACT Government.

The land sold at a Land Development Agency auction recently for $800,000 to the Northside Community Service.

It was the Gungahlin Community Council that asked for this right back in October 2006 when it was recognised then that the developing communities of Harrison and Franklin would need their own childcare centre - preferrably adjacent to the new Harrison School.

Research around that time by ACTPLA into ACT childcare availability also revealed that Gungahlin was chronically undersupplied, with just 16 childcare places for every 100 children under the age of 5 years.

In October 2007, GCC gained a commitment from ACT Planning and Education Minister Andrew Barr to release the necessary land. But then the group faced another battle, as the land proposed by the LDA was poorly located, they said. It was well away from the school, would still result in 'double drop-offs' and would reduce the likelihood of families walking their children to school and then potentially using public transport instead of driving to work.

In April 2008, we finally gained agreement from the ACT Government to allocate a parcel of land immediately adjacent to the Harrison School, and even better, adjacent to the pre-school part of the school.

More recently, concerned at the instability of the private sector childcare industry, GCC asked Deputy Chief Minister Katy Gallagher to make the land available to the not-for-profit sector. But Ms Gallagher replied that "it is not practicable for the centre to be made available to the not-for-profit sector due to the need for significant government funding."

As reporting in The Chronicle, within 4 hours of the land being sold parents were already putting their name down on the waiting list. This just proves the sever shortage of childcare places in Gungahlin.

It will probably be at least another year before we'll see the centre open to students, but this is a major step forward, a great win for the Gungahlin community and for GCC's lobbying efforts.