St Aloysius College - Rozelle Campus

Hi,

I do not support this project as the supporting infrastructure in the area cannot handle the increase in traffic in the area. Gordon Street, is already backed up during peak hours and bottlenecking cars coming in and out of a school/carpark is only going to exasperate the problem. Not to mention that you cannot turn left onto Maney Street in the afternoon peak hour times further forcing parents/students to utilise Gordon Street to access the school.

Furthermore, parking in the area is already hard to find on the surrounding streets with the West Connex workers having to find parking all the way up Gordon Street.

I don't mind the school, however, there seems to be little to no thought on how this impacts the entire block and surrounding blocks. What is the design and proposal to handle the following:
- Increase in traffic in the area?
- Where will students be picked up from?
- How will you ease the stress on parking in the area?
- Quirk Street is only wide enough for one car which will be an issue as you increase traffic in the area. Is there any plans to reduce parking one side to accomodate two lanes on the street?

Look forward to your response.

Thanks,
Matt

I am a long term resident of quirk street in Rozelle and I am extremely concerned about the plan to locate the college campus on this site. My primary concerns are for the local traffic, parking, noise and safety implications around this area. Maney, quirk and Gordon streets are all extremely narrow streets which do not allow two cars to pass by at the same time. As the drop off area is proposed to be on Maney st near quirk st this will cause an incredible bottleneck and dangerous situation in these streets.

As Maney and quirk streets became heavily used as a rat run for the westconnex workers in recent years we have witnessed cars in quirk street being sideswiped (due to the narrowness of the roads), cars hitting each other as they are unable to pass each other safely and otherwise dangerous driving in a residential area. If this is the designated area for parents dropping off children then I strongly believe that these streets will become absolutely gridlocked each morning and afternoon making it impossible for any local traffic to return to their properties or for cars coming from different directions to use these roads safely. As children will be walking around these streets this is a very risky situation.
Similarly Gordon is also heavily used, narrow and I often witness dangerous driving as drivers try to make the lights at Victoria Rd. This is already a dangerous and congested road and increasing its traffic along with the introduction of school children is a very risky situation.

Parking is also very limited already in these streets. There will be no availability for students or teachers to park in the local streets and their access to parking has not been adequately addressed in the proposal. Current Parking restrictions will need to be increased and will need to be heavily enforced to ensure that local residents are still able to park near their properties. The noise of so many cars, students, and teachers will heavily impact on the local area and the residents.


Given the incredibly narrow residential streets surrounding this proposed site I strongly believe it is untenable as a site for the st Aloysius college campus. Going ahead with this project will cause a dangerous situation on the surrounding streets which will put the safety of residents (and students) at risk and will also destroy the ability for the local residents to have adequate access to and enjoyment of their properties.
I strongly object to this proposal.

I am strongly opposed to the submission given the size of the project especially catering to 200 students plus. With this will bring further traffic congestion to Gordon Street which is already a main thoroughfare & congested thus changing parking zones and no doubt adding a school zone. The traffic and children's noise will also be a huge issue & no doubt they will infiltrate the small park at end of Prince Street used by residents and their children .As my apartment backs onto Prince Street I am very concerned with the Privacy issue from the top level of 48 Victoria Road. It will need to have shutters of some kind on the windows backing onto Prince Street thus ensuring privacy for the residents in 3-5 Gordon Street.. I bought my unit 12months ago driven by the fact there was no school or kindergarten in the immediate vicinity as that would have been a huge deterrent for me. I knew there was a college used at night and small business use in 48 Victoria Rd which I was ok with only just. The project will cause major changes to this small area none of them good in my opinion for the Residents of Gordon Street, Prince Street & Quirk Street. I am also aware that the letter informing the residents of these changes has basically been sent out at the last minute for obvious reasons. I feel that this project and the fact that St Aloysius College's aim is to house 200 plus students and staff is completely unreasonable and irresponsible to both the students and the residents who live in this area, it creates a zone where it is almost ensured of accidents both vehicular and personal not to mention the complete lack of disregard concerning the residents who live in the immediate vicinity. Should it go ahead the Inner West Council too shows this same disregard and irresponsibility.

My wife and I live in unit 7/3-5 Gordon Street Rozelle, directly opposite the church and community college;
My concerns are to do with the adverse effect of traffic movements and parking before during and after school hours, and noise impacts from any public-address system, events, and out of hours use of school facilities.

Traffic, Transport and Accessibility
*What measures are proposed to mitigate any traffic impacts: parents dropping off and picking up children, and after hours special events?
*what are the proposed car parking provision for staff?
*Where will the drop-off/pick-up zones be?
*Where will the bus bays be?
*How will this affect current on street parking for residents?

Vehicular access to the site is currently provided via Gordon Street at the eastern frontage of the site. Will this remain the same?
Traffic coming up Gordon St is frequently very heavy and unpredictable, as vehicles accelerate to make the traffic lights into Victoria Rd.
It is already dangerous.
*Will there be traffic calming measures? Speed bumps? other measures?

Up to 15 staff are to be present on site at any one time, where will they park?
They will surely be using existing on street positions, placing increased pressure on residents. West Connex workers already park here, taking residents parking positions on a regular basis.
Four (4) Parking spaces to be leased from the existing on-site car park for staff parking only, what about the others?
Proposed 5 minute parking in Many street for the parents of 200 students seems inadequate; where will the others park?
This will also impact residents parking.

Drop Off/Pick Up Parking
Inaccurate Data in the submission due to COVID:
The data provided in the document does not reflect the current parking situation; it would appear to have been documented during the COVID lockdown, when there were few people movements, and does not accurately reflect the real parking situation, which is pressured and limited.
There are precious few unrestricted parking places here; those that exist near our apartment border the proposed school boundaries. We will therefore be adversely affected by the proposal.
“It is proposed that a length along the south-western side of Maney Street, near Quirk Street, accommodating three (3) on-street parking spaces is restricted to ‘5-minute parking’ restriction” directly impacting us by reducing current on street parking place.

Employee Parking
Where will employees, visiting parents, visitors for special events park? Currently the community college already impacts on street parking, day and some evenings.

I don't object to the school using the buildings, but equally I do not believe that parking and traffic have been adequately addressed. I live here and it is already hard to find a parking spot.

The impact to traffic around the narrow and already busy streets of Quirk and Maney Streets is not acceptable for residents. There is already limited parking spots in this area for residents. On top of that there is the church theatre activity which will increase traffic to the area as well and the re-opening of left turn into Quirk Street from Victoria Rd. Residents must be given the opportunity to park their car near their homes and notbe subject to school children hanging around the outside of our homes causing noise disruption. There must be changed parking signage and the school must find a different way to divert the school pick up/set down so that it has little impact to surrounding residents

This is a strong objection to the proposed St Aloysius College -Rozelle. Residents who live in the area surrounding St Josephs Church will be negatively impacted by traffic congestion, noise and loss of residential parking.

As a resident who lives on Quirk Street, I am deeply disturbed to read that the school proposes to use the corner of Maney and Quirk as a parking area for pick up and drop off of students each day of the working week. If this goes ahead, this corner will become even more dangerous and noisy for residents, drivers and pedestrians. I have photo evidence demonstrating the number of cars that have already been hit on this corner. Cars currently speed along the very narrow Maney (from Victoria Road) onto the equally narrow Quirk. If parents are to use the 3 proposed corner car spaces on Maney Street, it will result in daily dangerous traffic flow problems on Quirk and Maney. Some parents will choose to do a u-turn on Maney as it only provides the option of turning left onto Victoria Road. Maney and Quirk will become a traffic hazard - residents will not be silent if this occurs.

The suggestion that only eight (8) vehicles will arrive in a 30 minute duration prior to the school start time is at best optimistic and at worst dishonest. Rate paying residents should not have to lose car parking spaces to accommodate this drop off and pick up area. We already have limited parking options when we return home from work/shopping due to patrons of the Merton Hotel and students attending Sydney Community College. If this drop off area is introduced it will mean that residents may have to move their cars late at night or early in the morning. It’s simply unfair that these spaces will be rendered unusable for residents over the duration of a day. Local schools don’t have “drop off and pick up areas” for parents - why should a resident in Quirk and Maney lose overnight parking to people who choose to send their child to a school in Kirribilli?

The student public transport data collected for the current Kirribilli school site should not be used as indicative data for the Rozelle site. Rozelle has no train station and consequently students will need to use multiple transport modes from the North Shore (and even from other areas in the inner west ) to get to Rozelle. No buses travel directly to the North Shore. The suggestion that students will ride their bikes to this school is preposterous – you’d be lucky to get one or two students who’d choose this option. It’s hard to fathom how (quote) “low traffic on road routes” such as Kenniff Street, Belmore Street, Waterloo Street, Evans Street and Crescent Street” are suggested as traffic routes in this context. Evans Street is certainly not a safe street to be on a bike!

We were informed by the Genesian Theatre that it would be used on Friday and Saturday nights and Saturday and Sunday matinees - now we learn the school is planning to use the theatre beyond these times. Council approval for the theatre was given subject to these conditions – residents will be vocal in protesting any extension of these hours.

As a teacher myself, I understand the practical need to carry often heavy resources and assessments to and from school/home. It’s therefore highly unlikely that the teachers will use public transport as suggested in the proposal.

Finally, it’s not reassuring that the school will lease 4 parking spaces as this will merely displace four Sydney Community College staff/students who will move to on-street parking.
If St Aloysius College -Rozelle is approved, it will be an over use of this site and impact adversely on the amenity of the local community. There is much more to protest here - we won't remain silent. Again, I strongly object.

In considering this project I would urge decision makers to focus on the traffic aspects. The area is already flooded with traffic from the Westconnex project at the bottom of Gordon St. I would request that parking conditions are place on a 100 metre zone around the school. While the proposal indicates that students will be encouraged to use public transport we all know that this will be ignored by many. The other element of the proposal that I would like to see scrutinised is the length of time that the area is used as a "temporary" school. There should be penalties, in the conditions of the proposal, if the school breaches the length of time.

I have examined the proposal in detail and have deep concerns with regard to increased traffic, noise, loss of parking and associated impacts including damage to property and pedestrian safety particularly on Quirk St and Maney St. The area around the proposed site is primarily [quiet] residential and is not appropriate for the intended development.

We strenuously object to this proposed development on the basis of its unsuitability as a school campus site and location because of its predictable impacts of the local area of increased vehicle usage and traffic congestion, and the increased demands for unavailable parking spaces.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Please find in the following pages a submission concerning the above application.

I may be contacted by email if any of the matters raised in the submission require clarification or would like to be discussed either by the applicant or the Department.

Thank you.

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SUBMISSION - St Aloysius College - SSD-27208140

I object to the above development in its current form without the following being more fully explained and resolved.

1. TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

1.1 Pick-Up / Drop-Off:
It is unclear how many private cars will actually utilize local streets for the purposes of drop-off and pick-up. The desk-based modeling may be underestimating the amount of journeys - possibly by 20-30% - given the diversity of locations and circumstances of individuals. For instance, there may be a cohort of students that for whatever reason (living in Inner West or neighbouring areas) will choose to be dropped off/picked up rather than use public transport or the school shuttle. The modeling does not seem to account for this increase/variability and thus a percentile increase of traffic flow ought to be factored in. This means the proposed traffic protocols are potentially invalid for the purposes of providing a consent.

<< BOLD >> The modeling as it stands is at the upper limit of what local streets can currently accommodate. As there is no buffer in the modeling that accommodates a 20-30% increase of traffic the process for pick and drop off may need to be re-thought for safety reasons. (See below) << BOLD>>

1.2. The plan for funneling / advising private cars to drop-off at Manning St is potentially hazardous for drivers and pedestrians as an ongoing protocol. For example, entering Manning off Victoria Road (ave speed 60kms) is dangerous as it is a sharp left off a three-lane arterial road.

1.3. While Manning is two-way, its width is such that it can only accommodate one car at a time in either direction. There is a great concern about ensuing traffic gridlock at these hours, ie, cars going different directions down the street.

1.4. Pedestrians using streets at these times adds another safety concern when there is gridlock conflict and cars attempting to u-turn or maneuver out of the area.

1.5. Specific concerns on the proposed traffic protocols:
- Entering / Exiting the area after drop-off/ pick up. Again, Manning is one-car only both ways.
- Exiting onto Victoria Road via Manning is an extremely dangerous left turn into 60km traffic.
- Exiting Manning via Quirk (then to Gordon) is a ‘roulette’ situation as the length of Quirk is like Manning St is one-car each way.

1.6. To avoid a 'rabbit-warren' traffic issue - and for convenience - it is highly likely children will be dropped-off and picked up on Gordon St, near to or opposite the school-site(s). More than likely this will occur by either stopping on Gordon St and blocking the flow of traffic, or pulling into the top of streets such as Gordon or Prince street - the latter directly opposite 2A/2B Gordon St / the Church. This will allow parents to stay on a main street facing the correct way (Gordon) and to exit quickly (to Victoria Rd). Currently Gordon St is a key arterial for accessing Victoria Rd. There are no passive speed reduction measures installed and speeds can reach 70-80kms at the top of the street (where the Church is, and proposed School), as drivers rush to make the green light at Victoria Rd.

There is no measure in the document to manage this.

<<BOLD>> 14-20 cars AT BEST coming and going at these hours on these streets has the great potential to create hazardous road and pedestrian issues on Gordon, Quirk, and Manning streets.<<BOLD>>


2. TRAFFIC AND PEDESTRIAN SAFETY

2.1. To avoid a rabbit-warren traffic issue discussed above - and for convenience - it is highly likely children will be dropped-off and picked up on Gordon St, near to or opposite the school-site(s). This will be done either by stopping on Gordon St and blocking the flow of traffic, or pulling-in to the top of streets such as Gordon St or Prince street (opposite the Church). This will allow parents to stay on a main st facing the correct way (Gordon) and exit quickly (to Victoria Rd). Currently Gordon St is a key arterial for accessing Victoria Rd. There are no passive speed reduction measures installed and speeds coming up to - and at the entry points to the church campus - can reach 70kms as drivers speed to make/go through the green light at Victoria Rd. Drivers out-of-the-area will be unaware of local traffic conditions such as the sudden speed increases on Gordon St and may well be caught-out and the potential for accidents will be raised significantly.

<<BOLD>> There is no discussion in the document to manage the likelihood of parents using Gordon St as a drop-off and pick up area. <<BOLD>>

2.2. College Coach.
Having the College Coach sitting outside the church area at the top of Gordon St on the east-side but facing Vic road is a hazard. To exit the the driver will be required to reverse onto the wrong side of the road to properly enter Gordon St (on the correct side) to then execute a turn onto Victoria Rd. In sum:
- It is unclear where college coach will dispense passengers at start of the day
- Unsatisfactory and potentially illegal/unsafe maneuver for the coach to leave the campus area

2.3. Students and staff arriving at the school on foot.
Will a pedestrian crossing be installed at the church area on Gordon St? Will there be a plan to direct students to use the traffic lights to cross Gordon St? Will staff be rostered to manage a very dangerous section of local road this at key times? Such questions are not addressed.

3. PARKING

3.1. Four on-site parking spaces is inadequate. The addition of at least 17 teaching staff and associated daily school visitors/deliveries etc will further complicate traffic issues in an area (300 mtrs from Vic road south down Gordon St, and surrounds) already experiencing a myriad of traffic flow stress, and will lead to increased use of resident parking areas. The issue of visitor parking is not addressed. For an activity such as a school of this size one would also expect extra visitors, deliveries etc throughout the day. Five-ten per day as an estimate? Where will they parking? How will they maneuver in and out of the precinct/streets? How will this aspect be managed so that further traffic, safety and parking pressures upon local streets are not increased? These items are not addressed in the application.


4. GREEN SPACE MANAGEMENT

4.1 It is noted that the only area for recreation for the school is the courtyard in front of the existing community college area of the church, or 2A/2B Gordon St.

It is inevitable that there will be regular sport or other outings by the school by various cohorts/groups to surrounding public green areas/ovals. I cannot identify where in the application this matter is discussed. The nearest green space/oval is Eastern Park, and the pending green space to be developed as part of WestConnex and managed/owned by Inner West Council. The Rozelle area is already a dense living area and green /open space is at a premium. I would expect some usage arrangement to be agreed prior to the application being considered.

4.2 Safety and amenity of local streets used by large groups. Pathways are narrow. Streets are quite dangerous because of traffic movements in this area of Rozelle. Groupings of 15-20 young students moving outside the campus onto narrow and dangerous traffic flow streets requires careful consideration and ought to be a factor for the application to be considered.

5. CONSTRUCTION

5.1 It is unclear in the application what arrangements are to be made for parking for construction workers and traffic management of construction vehicles. I also cannot see a time-line for construction. These are significant matters to discuss with the local public prior to an application being decided, normally, and in particular due to the WestConnex project and its current impacts/affects upon residents, ie amenity, traffic and other issues.

This is a strong objection to the proposed St Aloysius College -Rozelle. Residents who live in the area surrounding St Josephs Church will be negatively impacted by traffic congestion, noise and loss of residential parking.

As a resident who lives on Quirk Street, I am deeply disturbed to read that the school proposes to use the corner of Maney and Quirk as a parking area for pick up and drop off of students each day of the working week. If this goes ahead, this corner will become even more dangerous and noisy for residents, drivers and pedestrians. If parents are to use the 3 proposed corner car spaces on Maney Street, it will result in daily dangerous traffic flow problems on Quirk and Maney. Some parents will choose to do a u-turn on Maney as it only provides the option of turning left onto Victoria Road. Maney and Quirk will become a traffic hazard - residents will not be silent if this occurs. It is also highly likely that there will be a significant impact on traffic flow on Gordon Street which already overwhelmed by traffic in the morning peak.

The suggestion that only eight (8) vehicles will arrive in a 30 minute duration prior to the school start time is at best optimistic and at worst dishonest. Rate paying residents should not have to lose car parking spaces to accommodate this drop off and pick up area. We already have limited parking options when we return home from work/shopping due to patrons of the Merton Hotel and students attending Sydney Community College. If this drop off area is introduced it will mean that residents may have to move their cars late at night or early in the morning. It’s simply unfair that these spaces will be rendered unusable for residents over the duration of a day. Local schools don’t have “drop off and pick up areas” for parents - why should a resident in Quirk and Maney lose overnight parking to people who choose to send their child to a school in Kirribilli?

The student public transport data collected for the current Kirribilli school site should not be used as indicative data for the Rozelle site. Rozelle has no train station and consequently students will need to use multiple transport modes from the North Shore (and even from other areas in the inner west ) to get to Rozelle. No buses travel directly to the North Shore. The suggestion that students will ride their bikes to this school is preposterous – you’d be lucky to get one or two students who’d choose this option. It’s hard to fathom how (quote) “low traffic on road routes” such as Kenniff Street, Belmore Street, Waterloo Street, Evans Street and Crescent Street” are suggested as traffic routes in this context. Evans Street is certainly not a safe street to be on a bike!

We were informed by the Genesian Theatre that it would be used on Friday and Saturday nights and Saturday and Sunday matinees - now we learn the school is planning to use the theatre beyond these times. Council approval for the theatre was given subject to these conditions – residents will be vocal in protesting any extension of these hours.
The combination of a school, a theatre and a community college is without doubt a level of usage that will overwhelm the residential area and detract from our amenity. That demographically, this school has little or no relationship with the local area makes the proposal all the more insulting since it adds nothing to our area but will take much from the residents.
I also note that 200, 14 year old boys are unlikely to be able to be accommodated on the 'playground' areas during lunch and recess times. I also note that there are no available sporting areas. I am very concerned that the school will seek further permission to utilise local outdoor areas to accommodate the boys at the expense of local resident and sporting clubs once it is established.
Finally, it’s not reassuring that the school will lease 4 parking spaces as this will merely displace four Sydney Community College staff/students who will move to on-street parking.
If St Aloysius College -Rozelle is approved, it will be an over use of this site and impact adversely on the amenity of the local community. There is much more to protest here - we won't remain silent. Again, I strongly object.

Proposed use of the Western Side of Maney St Rozelle, to quarantine up to five parking spaces in the morning and afternoon, in which to drop off children at the school is a grosse encroachment on the availability of parking for current residents living in Maney and Quirk Street, Rozelle.
The survey was conducted during lockdown when the Merton Hotel and Bistro, Sydney Community College, Catholic Charismatic Renewal Centre, and St Joseph’s Church was closed for morning mass. Currently workers associated with the Westconnex project at the base of Gordon St occupy several parking spaces in all surrounding streets, but particularly Quirk, Maney and Graham streets. Placing a drop-off zone in this area not only inhibits local residents from accessing parking but it is argued that the result of congestion by additional cars entering Maney Street from Quirk Street will place students at risk of injury.
In the past two years there have been several traffic accidents and there no existing stop sign for vehicles turning right into Quirk Street from Maney Street.
It is highly probable that parents driving, predominately from the North, across the harbour and Anzac Bridges, will enter Maney Street off Victoria Road, and then exit via Quirk Street back into Gordon Street, during Peak Hour, turning right back towards the city. The diagram proposed under figure 10 under the “EIS Appendix 16- traffic report final” submitted is highly dubious as it is unlikely parents will be willing to queue up the already banked up Gordon Street during peak hour after entering from Lilyfield Road.
Any parents of children exiting from Maney Street into Victoria Road will not be aware of the dangerous nature of this corner, with a blind spot and high speed of traffic exiting the Anzac Bridge and crescent.
Please note that Quirk Street remains closed from entry via Victoria Road.
Local residents are highly affronted at a request for an additional five parking spaces to be utilized morning and afternoon in this highly congested area which is frequented by garbage trucks, delivery vans, and industrial trucks associated with Westconnex.
The Genesian theatre is expected to commence operating within the Church hall in 2022, this will place an additional burden on resident parking due to setup and rehearsal times.
Please note that the Wesconnex project is not the only major infrastructure project being undertaken in this area. Once the “spaghetti junction” underneath the end of Quirk Street is completed, the works for the Western Harbour tunnel and the Metro station across the street at the White Bay power station will commence, these works are expected to be continuous until 2030.
There are a number of assumptions presumed in the current document. It is expected that close to 25% of the school population between years 7-10 will be coming by car / drop off. This is a grosse misuse of power and an elitist expectation, transplanting a sense of entitlement of St Aloysius College and supplanting their desires to acquire resident parking to fulfill the elitist nature of the school at the expense of local residents. Residents do not enjoy off-street parking and are currently forced to jockey for the precious street parking that is available in Many and Quirk Streets.
Following very limited community consultation, it was stated by Mark Tannock, principal of St Aloysius, that stakeholders who attended the ‘community consultation’ [sic] would receive prior notification of the major projects proposal. This was submitted on the state government on the 19th of November, however no written or email communication was received by many residents, despite being assured that this would occur. A resident emailed our email group on the 5th of December, asking if anyone else had been notified, and sent out the link to view the proposal, giving only 12 days to review several hundred pages of documents and prepare a response.

Residents were disturbed when advised by St Aloysius College that the approval process would be bypassing Inner West Council, as this was an application to establish a new school. As a long term resident of Quirk Street (1978), residents are aware that St Joseph’s school has been in existence since the early 1900’s, it is quite ludicrous to apply the term a “new school” when the community college has been operating on the site for a number of years, occupying a previous St Joseph’s primary school building.
The nature and presentation of St Aloysius’ presentation stretches the imagination due to the number of assumptions included in the application. I wish to reiterate once again that the traffic survey conducted by St Aloysius was during lockdown while there was no traffic. I find that there is little good will in this application and a lot of the data is quite spurious in nature.
In conclusion, the elitist attitude inherent in this application assumes that an independent GPS school domicile at Milsons Point is entitled to relocate to Rozelle, and automatically assume that local residents will welcome the traffic congestion, noise, usage of local parklands for recreational activities, mainly O’Connor Reserve, Hannans Reserve and Easton Park. The authors of this proposal who do not live in the area and have not extensively measured traffic flow during a morning and afternoon peak, are placing the health and welfare of these proposed students at risk. I do not say this lightly, having been a resident of this street of 44 years, I am aware of the enormous number of traffic accidents that have occurred specifically on the corner of Quirk and Maney streets. I have endeavoured unsuccessfully to have a stop sign placed at the corners of these streets, but this was rejected by Inner West Council.

ZERO notification of this exhibition was provided to many residents in the street, our home at 38 Quirk St is directly opposite the proposed development, which was put up for exhibition on the 19th of November, but we only found out about this from a neighbour close to the deadline.
The “consultation” conducted by the school has been duplicitous, with an assumption that we would make way for them. The staff at Aloysius have treated this entire process as a fait accompli.

Please review recordings taken of both zoom meetings by myself, Aloysius made their own recordings but did not provide these to residents.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb5a2DyOTcnydDva06eHdv3SpotTbvI6w
Aloysius made representations that they would be taking over spaces currently used by a local indigenous charity, much to the surprise of a member of the staff who had not been consulted, they also claimed that they had spoken to the council, but councillors and mayor Rochelle Porteous stated that they had been consulted or notified at the time. Community Consultation as noted in various submissions has been misrepresented, especially in stakeholder consultation report.
I spoke at the second community consultation, I gave my direct experiences of being an ex-student of the school, but as I was about to begin asking more detailed questions about the proposal I was put on mute, and the session was abruptly ended twenty minutes early by Aloysius principal Mark Tannock.
The hybrid working week has become commonplace since the pandemic, people previously employed working in the CBD or other working environments are now spending more than 50% of their time working from home. The noise level of the school public address system, school bell, classroom noise and from playgrounds during recreational periods will impact on the ability of residents to work from home efficiently and quietly. Residents have already dealing with round the clock noise from tunnelling and demolition for years, and this will put an increased burden, increase stress and decrease quality of life for residents.
During the first consultation meeting, architect Andrew Pender stated that construction works are expected to take 16-18 weeks. Questions were asked about where parking for contractors would be arranged (on site or in the street). Andrew Pender specifically said that this would be provided when the proposal was up for exhibition. This construction traffic management plan is not included in the State Significant Development Application.
Residents are concerned about construction noise, which may taken place six days a week including Saturdays, which are normally people’s day off. It was noted by other residents attending the “community consultation” that preference was provided for positive comments by a previous parent of the school, and voices of dissent were silenced and marginalised. Requests were made to communicate directly with the principal away from the community group, split off and singled out to reduce the impact of negativity. As evidenced in the recording, staff members laughed or smirked at the residents while bringing up negative impacts, which epitomised my experience as a student of the school of blatant and subtle attempts to silence alternative viewpoints that do not support the dominant exclusive elitist culture of the school. Dissenting voices were not tolerated.
Many times, in this application, positive comments regarding the school redevelopment, made by a parent at the school who attended both community consultation meetings, (Christine Alibone-White) who does not live in the impacted area are referenced. This is highly suspicious, and I would tend to think that these comments were astroturfed by the school to artificially inflate the positivity of local residents to the proposal.
As an adult living with a vision impairment, I am very concerned about the safety factors involved with not only my own health and safety as a pedestrian but also the variety of other residents in the street, e.g. a number of women with young children in prams, several elderly residents using walking sticks due to the increased traffic on Quirk and Maney Streets incurred by the proposed drop-off zone.
Applications of this nature should be above party politics and should be graded on the merits of the application and not due to elitist exclusivity.

SEE ATTACHED SUBMISSION

See attached