Meadowbank Schools Project Mod 4 - Public Domain Changes

Please refer to the letter I have attached.

I object to the deletion of the 2.5m wide user path on the western side of Hermitage Rd. The right side of the road is full of business driveways where as the western side would provide safe passage for all pedestrians without the need to cross the road all the way to Victoria rd. Surely common sense would tell us that a footpath with no street crossing & only one driveway is far safer than crossing a busy road twice and multiple driveways that have been in use for fifty plus years. The taxpayers of this area deserve that when spending a billion dollars to build new schools that the pedestrians can walk safely with out a cost cutting measure to save on a footpath. Please come & stand on the corner of Victoria rd & Hermitage one afternoon from 3pm-4pm & tell me that this is a stupid decision/ modification .

Dear Sir /Madam,
It is essential that before the school and precinct is opened that the project provides adequate infrastructure such a pedestrian crossings, lighting, bike paths, footpaths and safety road signs. The safety of our children, disabled people and the community in general is paramount. Therefore I object to the opening of the precinct before these measures are put in place.
I strongly urge you to consider the councils submission as well as mine.

I object to the Application No SSD-9343-Mod-4. It is already extremely hard to find parking around the Meadowbank Education and Employment Schools precinct due to the number of factories in the area, people parking to catch the trains and TAFE teachers and students. It will be impossible to find parking once the new primary school and high school opens which means most parents will walk with their children. I have no idea how this will happen safely without the appropriate pedestrian access being completed prior to the schools opening. A considerable number of parents with young school age children also have other children in prams. They need appropriate footpaths and crossings to be able to walk to school. It is already very hard to walk to the current Meadowbank school with the traffic through Meadowbank, it'll be a lot worse with the new school and no doubt there will be accidents if the pedestrian access isn't completed.

The streetlights also need to be upgraded to ensure the safety of the students and teachers. A number of primary kids will be picked up from school after dark as they will attend after school care.

I have no idea why the government could even consider opening a new school without basic safety measures put in place for teachers, students and parents. There are safety requirements at school for basic activities that have very low risk. If this application is approved, young children will have to cross roads and compete with cars in factory areas with no safety measures in place!

I object to the variation to Condition D9(b), the deletion of a crossing at the intersection of Macpherson and See streets. The application states that this is "not required", but no evidence supporting this view is offered. Using this intersection almost every day, I strongly believe a crossing IS required; and indeed, the maps showing desired student access to the school have students - potentially hundreds of them - crossing at this intersection. Exactly how are they to do this safely, if there is no crossing? Parking close to the corner on the south side of Macpherson St makes this intersection inherently dangerous, without factoring in children on foot and on bikes. I urge you to reinstate a pedestrian and bike crossing at this intersection.
Secondly, I am dismayed at the lack of compromise you are willing to make in relation to the deletion of a wide footpath on Hermitage Road. You state that only a small number of students are likely to use this route, and clearly there are difficulties creating a wide footpath. However, a narrow footpath would be much more satisfactory that forcing these students either onto the road (west side) or into the paths of chemical factory trucks (east side). All children's lives matter. I urge you to modify the footpath to fit the available space.

Dear Tahlia Alexander
Council has made a submission to this application which should be considered in any assessment of the modification. No further submission will be made.
Thank you for the opportunity.

Sanju Reddy
Senior Coordinator - Development Advisory Services

See attached pdf.

I object to the proposed Modifications to the MEEP Schools Project Ref No. PAE-31458957. My reasons are in the attached file.

20 December 2021

Application Name: Meadowbank Education and Employment Precinct Schools Project – Modification 4

Application No.: SSD-9343-Mod-4

Subject: Proposal to the Modification 4 and the deletion of the requirement to upgrade the street lighting - REJECT


Douglas Partners Pty Ltd (DP) is the tenant of the property owned by Robig Pty Ltd at 96-104 Hermitage Rd, West Ryde, bounded by Hermitage Road on the west and by Rhodes Street to the south. DP have occupied this property for almost 30 years, with our sister company, Ground Test Pty Ltd (GT), who occupy the mechanical workshop and truck storage shed with frontage on Hermitage Road.

We reject the deletion of the shared path along the western side of Hermitage road as well as the deletion of the requirement for the lighting upgrade.

DP are a geotechnical and environmental consultancy, with an in-house (soil testing) laboratory and we operate around 20 utitlity vehicles that are used for our professional and technical staff to visit sites around Sydney, to carry out sampling and testing and supervise GT drilling rigs. GT operates 6 truck-mounted drilling rigs and a few other specialist rigs and support vehicles.

Douglas Partners’ forecourt, which runs along the eastern side of Hermitage road and our basement parking entry which runs along Rhodes street is very busy every day with both heavy (truck) vehicles and utes loading and unloading equipment in our workshops, as our office and operations run Mon-Fri, from 7:00 AM till 6:00 PM. Our basement car park also accommodates around 20 personal staff-owned vehicles, which are used for a range of business and personal trips throughout the day.

What would be a very high pedestrian traffic, which will include small children of primary school age will have to negotiate with high incoming and outgoing vehicles in our area of operations. Furthermore, all the businesses along the eastern side of Hermitage road run similar operations of heavy vehicle traffic (i.e Formula Chemicals & Mitronics), and in The Nook Avenue, smash repairs also create very high vehicle traffic.

The eastern side of Hermitage Road will be a very high risk for children to negotiate their daily to and fro to Meadowbank Education Precinct if used as the main pathway and is going to be “a disaster waiting to happen”. If the pathway on the western side of Hermitage road is extended, the pedestrians will only need to negotiate one traffic driveway of Sydney Water which already has an existing boom lift that slows down all incoming and outgoing vehicles. This will be a safer pathway to walk on and minimizes the risk on the pedestrian including small children. It seemed like a logical and safe solution for pedestrian traffic associated with the school and note that we had already conducted geotechnical investigations for the proposed walkway/cycleway along the western side of Hermitage Road.

We would also like to highlight the importance of improving the lighting in the school and in the surrounding streets as it is currently in a very dismal state. Lighting the schools and the surrounding street where students will be walking to and fro, particularly when the daylight is shorter will be an important part of keeping them safe in the very busy streets surrounding the Meadowbank Education Precinct.

We therefore respectfully reject the proposal for Modification 4 and the deletion of the lighting upgrade, in the best interest of everyone involved.


We appreciate the revitalisation of the area and the opportunities it will offer the community. As a business that shares the community with everyone, we will make every effort from our end to improve the safety of the pedestrians and school children walking past our area, but we consider that this decision is flawed and will likely have disastorous safety consequences for the children attending the new school. .

We hope School Infrastructure can revisit the footpath and lighting plan to truly make the education precinct a safe area for the children and the broader community.


Yours Sincerely,

Christal Medrano on behalf of


Bruce McPherson
Branch Manager - Sydney

In relation to the proposed pedestrian crossing at the intersection of Mellor St and Victoria road
Firstly I believe this is a very dangerous spot with cars heading west down Victoria road and then turning into Mellor st often at speed
this will also be exacerbated by cars exiting the petrol station in the same vicinity
Moreover the loss of parking spaces to our local businesses to accommodate this new school and where council have already made it difficult for parking for us in this area for our customers is not acceptable
I suggest the safest crossover from east to west across mellor will be much better placed closer to the school itself maybe near hermitage and far less traffic to endanger pedestrians

I strongly OBJECT to these modifications

As Acting P&C President, i have received the attached three letters from parents at the school objecting to the modifications put forward.

I strongly object to the proposed modifications, which will come at the cost of the safety of students as well as the broader community.

It is abhorrent that the project team would propose removing much needed safety upgrades as part of the new education precinct, presumably to save time and money. Many families live in the various complexes in Meadowbank and will rely on the upgrades to pedestrian crossings to access the school safely.

In addition, the current footpath along Hermitage Road is a serious risk to everybody (students included) as it passes directly along driveways of major industrial buildings, including a large chemical factory that is frequented by large trucks and forklifts multiple times per day. The intersection of Hermitage Rd and The Nook Ave is also an accident waiting to happen, due to the extremely poor visibility turning out of the avenue. Given the safest route for many residents to access the northern side of Victoria Rd is to walk down Hermitage Road (as opposed to busy Victoria Road), this upgrade should be done as a matter of priority for the safety of the broader community, including students.

Please do not approve these changes. They come at a serious cost to those that would otherwise benefit from all the effort that has gone into building the new facilities as well as the broader community. Safety must be a priority, not saving money. Please do the right thing.

It is extremely appalling to see planning and education bureaucrats having the guts to compromise on students (primary and high school), their parents, carers and teachers welfare by cutting corners and not providing the needed upgrades to safely access the schools.

You guys have no morals and respect for our young citizens – and it is only a matter of time for a (serious) accident to happen, especially along Hermitage Rd where no foot or cycle path is in place yet.

Shame on you all – and I dare to say this is most likely, if not definitely, a serious breach of your departments Code of Conduct, to put this modification no. 4 on the table.

Myself and many other concerned parents will initiate disciplinary action against you and your superiors for failing to act in the public interest and not putting safety first ahead of your budget and bonuses.

Please withdraw your modification 4 request immediately.

Thank you.

I object to the change of footpaths that have been proposed. Not constructing the footpath on the western side of Hermitage road will make it unsafe for children to walk any where near the road, especially in the afternoon as many drivers use all parts of the footpath and driveway to U turn into. This will make it very unsafe for children to walk in the footpath on the eastern side as there are many businesses using them and then the grass and uneven verge to walk on