Carlingford West Public School Upgrades

The concern is the development project is NOT meeting the current enrolments needs for the school, nor the future needs.
The school needs a larger capacity that can fit more students.
The proposal NOT address the future traffic issues, hence, only passive and localised solutions were proposed. Current issues on road safety and traffic congestion were NEGLECTED in the proposal.

Please reconsider

Feedback on proposed upgrade of Carlingford West Public School as per attached document

There is no reassurance that the upgrades will improve traffic conditions - if the school is already over the student limit - these improvements are only going to make the school more attractive. The traffic report is incomplete - it hasn't considered the flowon effects on the Baker St/Jenkins Road intersection where the "in zone" traffic coming down Moseley St can prevent a right turn from Baker St in to Jenkins Rd for more than 15 minutes.
The report shows most of the residences between the school and Hunts Ck are in a red fire zone and yet there is no way emergency vehicles could get to these residences during school drop off and pick up times. During school time there are more than 1 hour windows morning and afternoon where I cannot make appointments or journey to and from work.
Please reduce the intake area and require the massive local high rise developments to include a school instead seeking permission to increase the existing planning density.

The planning process is disrespectful to the local community as the proposed site for the Carlingford West Primary school has already commenced. Parts of Cumberland High school have been fenced off and trees removed for the demountable classrooms during the construction of Carlingford West primary school.

It is disappointing that this State Significant Development disregards the impact on the local community, as it is only the local community that will use this development. The rapid increase in the school’s population over the last 6 years due to Carlingford being a designated high growth area has been mismanaged by the Department of Education. It has failed to plan for a new additional primary school in the area. Both the Social Impact report and the Traffic report merely acknowledge the communities’ displeasure and concern with the proposal as it locks in the current unsafe traffic congestion.

The proposal fails to address the inadequate infrastructure in the area as the school is accessed from narrow local dead-end streets that are not able to cope with the volume of pedestrians and vehicles. Emergency vehicles would not be able access residents or students during peak times as the streets are gridlocked for up to 30 minutes.

Onsite parking for teachers in insufficient. Teachers and other casuals that attend the school park in the local streets which are too narrow for both parking and flow of traffic during peak times. The proposal should have parking for all teachers and other visitors.

The proposed development does not have adequate open space, as the student population will already need demountable classrooms to meet current demand let alone future students. It is misleading to suggest that this open space will actually materialise for the students.

The proposal also fails to address the adequately of the proposed school as Carlingford continues to grow. The reports presented acknowledge that the school population will continue to grow at 9.2%, and merely suggest that future catchment realignments might address this issue without acknowledging that surrounding schools are also exceeding capacities. Further, the educational impact on Cumberland High school has not been considered. The impact on students during construction has not been addressed, and on completion the current Carlingford West students would, with other local primary schools, attend Cumberland high school which only has a design capacity of 700 students. Reflecting School Infrastructures continued poor planning.

Traffic congestion in the area has been a concern for the local community for many years and representations have been made to both council and our local State member who accept that there is a problem and are unable to find a solution. The current proposal is not a solution, it is an expensive band aid which adversely impacts the community.

Approval of this State Significant development would be considered irresponsible as it does not address the educational needs to the local community and fails to plan for the future. The proposal also does not address the unsafe access via local dead-end streets due to inadequate infrastructure for both pedestrians and road users.

I would like to comment on 2 aspects of the project:
1. Planned Capacity and Expected Growth of Carlingford West Public School(CWPS)
2. Traffic Management Plan

1. PLANNED CAPACITY AND EXPECTED GROWTH OF CARLINGFORD WEST PUBLIC SCHOOL
The plans are to support growth of the school to 1610 students. The growth of CWPS comes from the public sharing of the CWPS ranking as one of the tops schools in NSW from the NAPLAN results. This creates a known situation where parents from all over Sydney rent in the catchment to qualify their children for admission to CWPS. If in future the NSW govt decides to not publicly share school rankings from NAPLAN or other ranking methods, then the demand for positions at CWPS will be nowhere near what is currently projected.
Putting aside any judgement on whether the public sharing of school rankings should occur, a change in approach by the NSW govt that would take away school ranking from public knowledge could potentially leave CWPS as a large school with wasted capacity.
There is also the impact of Traffic based on this demand for entry to CWPS from across Sydney which will be covered in the next point.

2. TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT PLAN
Currently the traffic surrounding CWPS at school drop off and pick up is very high, impacting surrounding roads and causing traffic bank up in all directions as is already understood by current traffic surveys.
Following on from the previous point around the planned growth and demand from across Sydney based on the CWPS school ranking being the top for NSW, the traffic impact will become worse with the potential to increase danger for pedestrians, motorists and attendees of the school if the traffic is not managed well.
The current plans are expecting that bicycles and public transport could help reduce the impact as the numbers of students increase. There is a very real potential that these mitigation plans may have little effect and the traffic conditions could become much worse.
Again, based on the CWPS school ranking being top for NSW, parents across NSW will continue to rent in the catchment to qualify their children for admission to CWPS. After their children have qualified for entry, and proportion of those temporary renters will move back to their original homes out of the catchment area. This will mean they will most likely choose to drive to drop off and pick up their children. As is acknowledged in the Traffic Impact Assessment, most parents will not have their young children catch public transport.

My comments are related to a request for additional analysis and confirmation of the plans around these points, considering the opportunity to make a positive impact with the planned support from the NSW govt for development at CWPS. Experts are always necessary for a project of this complexity, but serious and considered input from stakeholders on the ground, such as the principal and staff, as well as parents and neighbouring community, should be taken into account. There can be a tendancy to relay on expertise and push thru a project to meet deadlines and budgets, but for the outlay and extreme difficulty in changing any plans further into a project such as this, it should be worth the time and effort to make the planning upfront as effective as possible.

Thanks for your consideration

I bought the block of land and built my house in Baker St Carlingford in 1978 when the traffic through the street was very light. The council allowed me to position the driveway where it was convenient to enter the property, on top of the hill and the road bend. Upon exiting the property there is virtually no visibility of the oncoming traffic in the direction of the schools. 40 years ago it was not an issue, considering scarce traffic. Currently, it is impossible to exit my property at the pick up/drop off school times. The traffic is bumper-to bumper or at the standstill outside my property. Apart from inability to drive my car in or out of the property in emergency, the constantly increasing noise and pollution are taking toll on my health. I'm concerned that the planned upgrades to local schools will make my situation intolerable. However, for various reasons I would not like to move.

I am making a submission on behalf of an elderly resident currently living in very close proximity to both Carlingford West Public School and Cumberland High School. Both the resident for whom I am writing and I are extremely concerned about the increased traffic, in particular morning and afternoon congestion that will ensue if the current plans by School Infrastructure NSW for Carlingford West Public School Upgrade are not modified to include a Felton Road east-west drive through, incorporating an UNDERGROUND car park for ALL staff members. Entering and exiting Dunmore Avenue via Baker Street is already a nightmare for Dunmore Avenue residents during school commencement and departure times; this will only worsen under the current plans, which creates immense concern with regard to both road safety and pollution in the area. Furthermore, current plans include a car park that will only accommodate 50% of staff members, ultimately meaning the remaining staff will likely seek to park in spots external to their place of employment, thus depriving local residents and students that drive to Cumberland High School of the already limited spots available in Dunmore Avenue.
Finally, the currently planned car park will deprive students and residents of open spaces and natural light, the detrimental effects of which are another concern of immense proportion. An underground car park would address these issues.

The traffic is terrible during school pick up and drop off times . Its not safe for kids and parents to walk in my street during traffic peek times. Parents picking up their kids do not adhere to road rules . Some one will be be run over or killed when parent and cars rush rush in the streets .In addition they park in front of my drive way . Im unable to cant get in and out of my house . The project will make the school more attractive to students outside the area. This will worsen the danger and traffic in the community.

I object to the project on the following grounds:
A. Failed to meet its obligation of ‘Community Engagement’. Per Appendix 34 the project began in (at latest) Oct 2019. The first letterbox communication received by neighbours of the school was 08Apr21 (prior letterbox drops stated in Appendix 34 never happened). I have children at the school and I never received any communication about the project through the school either. The community should have been allowed input at the early planning phase, this never happened. If this very first step was followed, then the project would have delivered on student pedestrian safety and traffic management (the number 1 community concern!!).
B. Fails to address community traffic concerns which are many. Pedestrian safety. Illegal parking, 3 point turns etc. Traffic congestion. Restricted access to/from private residences at certain times of the day. Many of the Appendixes are missing Pedestrian & Traffic Management Plans (Appendix 32 SEARs Item 6 not complied with). The only traffic plan evident relies on primary school aged children using public transport and/or walking and riding to school, this will not happen in 2022. Covid19 has resulted in an increase in the reluctance of people to use public transport. Appendix 25 predicts no improvement with likely worsening of traffic.
C. Fails to use accurate data on school catchment population, this data will be available after this year’s August Census which will be carried out by The Australian Bureau of Statistics. This data will highlight the number of primary school children in the catchment that attend a public school (CWPS). Census data will show that the difference between the census and school population must be ‘out of zone' student numbers. These students directly result in increased traffic congestion and decreased road safety. Census data should be used for any project that uses taxpayers money (in this case $90M of it).
D. Fails to provide enough classroom capacity for the current number of students. This will result in temporary buildings being required from day 1 post completion.
E. Fails to provide safe 'pick up' and 'drop off' for students. This current plan requires children to continue to walk the streets among moving vehicles which is unsafe and dangerous. There is no change/improvement to the situation to the eastern side of the school. The project should have a through road from Felton East to West, opened only at pick up and drop off. This would allow for both safe pick up & drop off, and traffic flow.
F. Fails to provide enough staff car park spaces. Resulting in staff having to street park in already congested streets. There is ample room to build a safe secure car park for your employees. The plans rely on staff using public transport and walking and/or riding to school, once again this will not happen. Covid19 has resulted in an increase in the reluctance of people to use public transport. At present 96% of staff drive to work.
G. Fails to minimize the disruption to student’s education. Adjoining Cumberland High School is to be upgraded next. A student at CWPS in year 4 (for example) will now have 2 years at a temporary primary school followed by a further 2 years disrupted at Cumberland High School during its' upgrade. That is 4 years (at least) of disrupted education, or almost 1/3 of their schooling. Logic would be to upgrade Cumberland High School first followed by CWPS, to minimize the disruption in education to the children.

My submission regarding to CWPS Upgrade is attached

Current plans by School Infrastructure NSW for Carlingford West Public School Upgrade need the following
major improvements for the sake of both the school and local community :
● To significantly ease morning and afternoon traffic congestion and address associated serious traffic
safety concerns for students, parents, teachers and local community members , a Felton Road east
west drive through incorporating an underground car park for all school staff is required. Current
plans will do nothing to ease existing morning and afternoon gridlock traffic conditions and serious
safety concerns. Furthermore the planned carpark only accommodates for 50% of staff numbers; it
also will use a significant amount of open space robbing both students and residents of open spaces
and natural light.
● A school that will accommodate informal estimates of 2,400 students by 2024 (this is even after
allowing for a reduction in catchment area size) in permanent classrooms - current plans only allow
for only 1,610 - existing enrolments are 1,760 ! Without this improvement many future generations
of students will be condemned to a schooling life in demountables !
* staff and visitor parking not accommodate with school property will occupy surrounding local streets with signiciant impact on public amenity.
*The current planning proposal do not include any proposal for traffic management of the road interestion bwt Baker St and Pennant Hills Hwy
* The current planning proposal does not include information or advise regarding Cumberland HS redevlopment and improvements.
* The current development proposal is inappropriate for the existing site given the expected student population and local constrants.

Dear Sir,
I am writing to express my thoughts about the proposed redevelopment of Carlingford west public school. I live in Felton rd. east and have had my 5 children go through the school. During this time, I was very involved in the school, being on the P and C running the uniform shop and designing the uniform. I taught in the Gifted and Talented program and helped in the classrooms. So, I have invested a lot of time and energy in the school and the community, and I am very upset with the plans and the disregard that this is going to be a huge school in a primarily residential area.
Buildings are only going to cater for 1610 students and there are already 1760 enrolled right now, with a projected 2,400 students in 2024.Why are the boundaries so large when Oatlands school has minimum numbers? There are many people travelling from out of the area. There are no bus bays planned and bus routes to encourage public transport to stop all the cars!!!
There is a great deal of traffic as established by the study that over 90% of parents are driving their children to the school. I was involved in getting the Lollipop person near James Ruse School roundabout which only happened this year! So, the safety of the children as they cross roads to get into waiting cars is still constant, as are the U turns that parents undertake in Felton Rd during peak time. The safety of pedestrians is alarming with people walking on the road as the footpath isn’t wide enough, and children running across Karingal Ave without looking is scary! The volume of traffic both pedestrian and motor will only increase with the projected increase in school numbers and there doesn’t seem to be any plans to deal with this both in terms of safety of the children and the residents. The issue of parking in the street is proving more difficult as there are the many functions at the school and classes after school, and people are constantly parking across our driveways, and this includes tradesmen for the school and the new building project. When questioned these people are abusive and assure me, they will only be a few minutes, but I have waited over an hour without getting into my driveway and thus blocking the road. When looking at the plans there are only limited parking allowed, not undercover which is the logical answer on a sloped sight but instead using valuable playground space. Where are the rest of staff going to park but in the street in front of residences stopping individuals parking in front of their own home. This is a major problem for me as I have mobility issues and cannot walk from the side street which is full of staff cars! The planning doesn’t seem to be thought out in terms of the projected numbers of students, in terms of catering for their needs and also the staff needs!
There is also very little consideration for the impact the building process will have on the traffic and safety of the children with the already major traffic problems.
Yours faithfully,
Maree Ross

To whom it may concern,
Thankyou for the opportunity to have a say with respect to the planned upgrades for Carlingford West Public School.
I am a local resident living almost across the road from an entrance to the school, residing in the same residence for 28 years. The school had always been small and tucked away neatly among the houses, attended by children who walked to school. Interaction between the school and local residents had always been good.
Unfortunately the school community has grown extraordinarily quickly which has negatively impacted on ourselves and neighbours.
The number of school cars in our little area with narrow streets is outrageous. In the morning parents , and teachers, will park and leave their cars all day until pick up time. Parents are either walking back home or walking to catch public transport. School gets out at 3:30 but some parents start parking at 2:00pm looking for shady spots or “quick get away” spots, they are in such a hurry to park that they sometimes block driveways or park on corners, blocking the view of other drivers. The parking is such that is sometimes not possible to drive safely on the roads because the streets are narrow and when parents park on both sides of the streets they effectively have taken up the whole road and residents cannot enter or leave.

There is quite often gridlock where cars can take up to an hour or more to drive out of the area.

I have been witness to parents fighting and screaming at each over parking spots.

My concern is one of Medical, Police or Fire emergency where if any of those services are needed in the window between 3 and 4 pm they would not be able to get through. There already has been an instance where a Cumberland school student was hit by a bus and a helicopter was utilised to bring in paramedics and landed in the school oval because an ambulance would have been too slow. I have a child with a heart condition. Thankfully she had a heart attack at night and not during school pick up or drop off, otherwise she would not still be with us, she would have died waiting for an ambulance to squeeze through the school traffic.

I suggest that school boundaries be changed so as to direct students to schools such as North Rocks Public School, Yates Avenue, Telopea and Burnside Public schools which are currently under enrolled.

Perhaps build another school in the vicinity. If the government can find land to build high rise apartments surely they can find land to build another school.

I suggest the Department of Education look closely at enrolment applications and cross reference names and addresses with those on Census, Voting enrolments, Tax Forms, Car Licenses, Council listings to weed out those who commit school enrolment fraud. My own children when attending the school had friends in their classes who lived in Merrylands, Beecroft and Epping.

I also suggest you put in place an Emergency plan or emergency site for helicopter or fire brigades for when emergencies arise during school drop off or pick up. The occurrence of a possible medical emergency during those times should be taken into consideration .

It is very unpleasant to be a resident near Carlingford West Public School. We have to arrange our days, appointments and visitors around the school timetable. We are being held hostage by this school and it will only get worse if the school gets bigger. Please do not do this to us.

Thankyou,
K. Lamond

There are too many demountables

Please see attached response

See attachment

Dear Planning,
Please find comments from Heritage NSW - ACH Regulation regarding the above project attached.
Thank you for your patience.
Don't hesitate to contact me on 4927 3244 if you have any questions or concerns.
Regards
Rebecca Yit