Upgrades to Carlingford West Public School and Cumberland High School

Carlingford West Public School and Cumberland High School are in need of an upgrade, but the proposal does not address the problems that exist and is just a bandage over the problems caused by the school, which seems to ask more questions than provide answers.
The primary issue with CWPS is it continues to provide education for students from outside the catchment area, where these students should be attending their local public school. This has led to the issues in the area. The school size must be addressed before anything else is done, then the majority of the issues go away. It is common knowledge that parents are temporarily leasing properties in the area to beat the enrollment requirements. Once their first child has been admitted they can then get all subsequent children admitted despite them living outside the catchment area.
The streets in Kingsdene are unsafe at drop-off and pickup times, drivers continue to ignore signage and road rules. Parents walk children on roads rather than on the footpaths. Despite efforts by Parramatta City Council rangers and police it seems that when authorities are in the area parents are on their best behavior. Residents must plan exit and entry to this suburb to avoid the kayos caused by this oversized school. We should not be captive in our homes because we cannot leave or return when the school day starts or finishes.
The proposal of a turning circle at the end of Felton Rd West is not a solution to solve the traffic problems. It does not mean that the traffic issues will go away, but only allow for longer queues.
The School Infrastructure representative when my site visual impact assessment was done, said that the “Link Road project” between Dunmore and Blenheim will take most of the traffic away from the Kingsdene area because parents will find it easier to drop-off/pickup on that side of the school. Yet residents on the eastside of the school were told by Infrastructure that the “Link Road” is not for the parents on from the westside or CWPS to use. So which version of this truth are we expected to believe?
Many parents try to avoid the Felton Rd West queue by using other streets (Edinburgh and Sandringham) resulting further congestion in these streets. The safety issues have not been thought through and there are fears that someone will be seriously hurts one day. These streets are narrow and cannot have parking on both sides. The streets become blocked, cars are forced to reverse back around corners or into driveways to clear the blockage.
The height restriction of 9 metres has been ignored (as stated in the documents) to allow buildings over 13m to be built near the tree line on the boundary, directly impacting residential properties. While shadow diagrams may show minimal impacts, these structures will be overbearing for residences on the western boundary. There is no building line setback shown which indicates that the buildings could be closer that shown on the architectural plans. If buildings of this size need to be built which is questionable then they should be well away from any boundary.
The upper levels will see directly into properties on the western boundary. This will cause serious privacy issues. Students currently throw objects into neighboring properties with these high-rise buildings the problem will only get worse.
With hundreds of students in these buildings the noise generated throughout the day will significantly impact elder residents and those who have home offices. Added to this loud music that is played several times a day instead of ringing a bell.
Stormwater from CWPS will be drained in Felton Rd West. With the increased catchment area in the new school buildings and more hard surfaces how will the current drainage infrastructure be expected to cope. Currently during heavy rain periods the drains at Felton Rd West overflow and the streets become partially blocked this will further add to flooding.
What will be done about construction noise and dust during construction affecting neighboring residences?
To date the demolition work of a recently built school hall and other buildings has been a waste and will continue to be a waste of taxpayer funds.
Real estate agent assessment this may devalue house prices by $150,000-$200,000.
The current proposal directly impacts the quality of life for residents and must be reconsidered.
The school size and supposed catchment needs to be addressed before any more taxpayer funds are wasted on providing buildings for an oversized school. If adequate education was provided for students in all areas/government schools then it would not be necessary to create mega-schools like CWPS. This would reduce the need for excess travel for drop-off and pickup, few cars on roads, less fuel usage and better for the environment.

I personally do object to it given the already extensive truck and construction activity going on M-F (7 am - 5 pm) and Sat 8am - 1 pm. that has been occurring for well over a year now and the impact of "construction fatigue" and mental health impacts on local residents which should be recognised by the Department of Education and those responsible for planning generally.

The latest forecast population growth rates from year 2022 to year 2041 for Carlingford (as per Parramatta Council official website details) is only 17.8% !!! see screenshot attached So why the need for a massive Cumberland High overdevelopment to cater for nearly 300% increase in enrolments ???
CHS and hence our area in Carlingford is being asked to bear the extraordinary population forecast growth (186%) in Telopea as result of the proposed Precinct Redevelopment with no high school infrastructure - the EIS for the Telopea development clearly indicated an increased high school children population in Telopea of approx 700 - enough to more than warrant its own high school. Build schools where they are needed ! The infrastructure cop out for this situation is simply to ensure massive profits for the developers
In relation to CWPS, the local state member for Parramatta (Geoff Lee) stated in June this year, that at least 50% of their enrolments were from outside the catchment area - so if only 50% of the current 1900 CWPS students are local then even allowing for say 20% increase in local population would warrant a school to accommodate 1140 students not 1,610 !

My submission is: The schools are already too big, they need to be scaled back to reasonable student numbers for the benefit of all, not least, the students themselves and places should be limited to those living within the catchment area. The proposed student numbers for both schools are far too high: Carlingford West PS cap is 550 students but numbers have grown to almost 2000 due to out of area parents wishing to get their children into a high performing school according to NAPLAN results. Consequently, when one child is enrolled, all their siblings are allowed to enrol in the future despite possibly living many kilometres from the catchment area. Cumberland HS is planning to increase their number to 2000 from around 850. Already, the whole vicinity of both schools is gridlocked both mornings and afternoons with so much traffic, making safety a huge concern. In addition, OOSH have around 400 children morning and afternoon and James Ruse has another 835. It is little wonder the traffic situation is already dire and if numbers are not reduced it can only be a matter of time until some serious traffic event occurs. There have been incidents already: one such occasion was a 4 wheel car driver doing a U-turn in the narrow Felton Road West gate area, putting the foot on the accelerator instead of the brake and shooting across the footpath into the garden of 88 Felton Rd, knocking an orange tree over which prevented it from ending up in the house owner's rumpus room. Fortunately, no-one was walking on the footpath at the time or there could have been a very sad ending to the incident. U-turns, in the traffic gridlocked streets teeming with parents and students, are occurring all the time. The area consists of mostly narrow streets with few entries and exits, both on western and eastern sides of the school which creates absolute chaos for residents wishing to leave or enter their own properties and necessitates strategic planning for any appointment. The proposed traffic suggestions will not make any difference to the volume of cars driving students to school but just shuffle it around and possibly exacerbate an already difficult problem. Unless students do live in the catchment area, they will not be walking, cycling, bussing or skating to school. Regardless of the fact that 75% of the school catchment area "is within 15 minutes' walking time to school", if at least 50% of students are from out of area, there will be few of the 76% to 80% of students being driven to school who will avail themselves of the bicycle racks! The question asked of parents dropping off their children to school should have been: "Where do you live?" not where are you going after dropping your child (which is of little consequence) to get a truer picture of whether prioritising other means of getting to school instead of driving was going to result in any lessening of vehicles and lead to improved safety for children and citizens alike. Macquarie Boys' High School was closed in 2009 and there is a K - 12 school being planned for that site. Why cannot the CHS catchment area be amended for fewer students by taking the Rydalmere campus into account instead of planning to double the CHS student number? Adding up the total number of students in 7 local primary schools does not even come close to the present total of CWPS students. In particular, Telopea Primary School only cites 88 total students in a perfectly good site with ample room for a complete school population and better access. Also, Yates Avenue PS similarly. There is no high school planned for the new Telopea precinct which is anticipating a huge increase in residents. High rise units abound by their thousands in the locality yet no schools have been built to accommodate them. Good planning includes the necessary forecast infrastructure - there has been little improvement in local infrastructure in 50 years. The amount of recreational space at CWPS and CHS is vastly reduced and cannot cater comfortably with such high numbers of students: the schools were never meant to have such a huge population but to cater for the local students. Whilst the authorities are well aware of the traffic safety issues at both sides of the schools, they cannot permanently monitor the drivers who frequently park illegally unless they see an official in attendance. The public right of way which was granted as a condition from Felton Rd West to Felton Rd East when the school was first built has been unavailable to residents since the schools have been fenced in and needs to be reinstated, particularly with the hopefully imminent resumption of Carlingford rail services. Otherwise, even more traffic will be added to already choked local roads to enable residents to reach the station which a pedestrian can achieve in a walk of around 15 minutes from the western gate.

See attached

I have reviewed the visual impact assessment (Page.14) and still concern about the privacy issue from the swimming pool area at my backyard. There are an open space between the school and my house due to dead trees removal from the school yards. It is about 10 meters gap or more without natural trees privacy. Since the proposed building W would be able to overlook the most of backyard including the swimming pool and the distance is not far (15 meters approx). I need you consider to setup privacy screen over the exposed windows to avoid the privacy issue.

The project indicated the setup of bus lane right against the fence line of 18 Dunmore Avenue complex. It is going to introduce the following problems to residents of the complex and these are impacting me directly:
1. Noise during school hours - impact my job since I work from home. I also have someone in my household that work shifts, school hours will be too noisy for shift workers to sleep.
2. Pollution - the buses right against our fence line means the exhaust fumes will travel into our courtyards and properties. This is unacceptable. As those pollution will impact our health and lungs, extensive exposure could even cause lung cancers. my neighbours and myself do not want to have the extra pollutants in our complex.

The above points are our reasons for not supporting the development. Please REMOVE the bus line against our fence line. You can move it to the middle of the school or underground.

I am one of the owners at 18 Dunmore Ave, Carlingford NSW 2118.
I would like to express my strong objection to the proposed "one-way bus link road from Pennant Hills Road to Dunmore Avenue."
This one way bus lane will be built right next to our complex's fences. This will cause significant impacts to the residents' health and quality of life as per below:
1. Residents will be breathing in buses' exhaust during peak hours school traffic which can lead to long term respiratory problems and/or lung cancer and/or even death as a consequence. It is unfair to ask the residents to close all of their windows during peak hours.
2. The noise of buses driving past can impact some residents' lifestyles. i.e. some residents work shifts and need to sleep during the day. Long term sleep problems can cause mental illness.
3. The long term noise can affect some residents' hearing ability leading to hearing loss.
4. Busy traffic may potentially impact on the buildings' appearance in which the strata fund will be utilised more often in order to provide more frequent maintenance. As a consequence, the strata fee will increase which can cause financial burden to the residents/owners.
5. There may be more unforeseeable risks to our complex and our health.
Please kindly take my opinion into serious consideration, this development can have a major impact on 13 families' lives.

The project will help ease congestion and traffic in the area at school drop off and pick up times. However, construction will block parking access on some nearby roads and push parents to park and walk from more local streets that don’t have footpaths, such as Pleasant Ct.

While it may be difficult for residents to consistently find a park in this time, all properties have driveways so this is not an issue that should preclude construction. The key issue is that parents and grandparents have to walk in the street with their young children to and from their cars/school at drop off and pick up.

This once included a mother with a child in a pram and two children of K-2 age hanging onto the side walking down the centre of the road between two parked cars on either side of the street while someone was reversing out of a driveway, they only just stopped in time. Not only could they barely see the street past the parked cars, they were not expecting small children and a pram to be in their way and were clearly checking their mirrors for larger, taller objects like cars.

If the pedestrian activity on the street and similar local streets without footpaths is set to increase, footpaths should be installed. Pleasant Ct has footpaths in the cul-de-sac end of the street, clearly built when the townhouses were developed. The rest of the street should have a connecting footpath that would then also connect to the footpath on Baker St.

As it stands, Pleasant Ct is a pedestrian vs car accident waiting to happen. Increasing the number of children walking in the street will not help and footpaths should be installed before something terrible happens.

My comments relate to Carlingford West Public School.
I note that the proposal is for a decrease in existing number of primary school students, but no specific details are given of the current enrolment numbers and the proposed reduction. The application states that CWPS upgrade will cater for a total student population of 1610, which is far too high even if this is a reduced number.
Only students from the local zoned intake area should be allowed to attend the school, which would mean that a large number could walk to school rather than be driven there. Students not living within the local zoned intake area should no longer be able to make a non-local application for enrolment, and the details provided by the local students should be properly checked to make sure that they do indeed live in the area. This is the only way to reduce and cap overall enrolments.

Please refer to the attached document.