Upgrades to Carlingford West Public School and Cumberland High School

Dear DPE,
I object to the current proposal because:
1. It does not provide any solution to the traffic congestion face by residence from CWPS parents driving to school.
2. The size of CWPS is potentially too big for the number of children that live in the catchment.
3. There needs to be greater control of the enrolment process and a review of the current CWPS student population to see where they are travelling from to get to CWPS, this is the main reason for traffic problems.
4. If CWPS continues to grow it will need demountable classrooms again as soon as it opens. It needs to see numbers reducing for Kindy as of 2023 for the proposal to work. If Kindy numbers are not coming down then it is going to fail.
5. Once approved, the build needs to be done as quickly as possible to limit the impact on the children. It needs to be done right.
Regards,
Mary

Refer to attached document titled EIS Submission for my submission.

See attachment

This project is not a great project. The building plan is far behind the real needs of both schools, especially for CWPS. However, it will be a better than none project. Please speed up the process, the current environment is not good for the students learning and local community needs.

I can see the development proposals are made under careful considerations of the current situation of the schools and the community. My objection is based on my concerns over the pollution this large scale of construction is going to cause and its influence on school students life on campus. The demolition work which has been finished has caused a lot of noise and dust pollution. I could hear the noise at home and the dust even came into my house. It is not hard to imagine the level of pollution on school campus. Furthermore, a large scale of construction like this will necessarily take years, which means the students will study in this temporary condition for most part of their school life( not enough play area and other school facilities in a pollution environment), which is not how I want my son to spent his precious childhood.
If the authorities can provide more practical solutions to my concerns above, as both a community member and a parent of CWPS, I will be happy to see the developments of the school and community.

Pls see attached our Ltr of Objection of the proposed development dated 5/12/2022

Serious privacy issues for residences along boundaries as proposed school buildings too close to boundaries.
Quality of life for residents has been impacted by unabated growth in school size.
The size of CWPS is unreasonably too big.

Oversized school providing education for students outside the catchment area while local resident pay the price of traffic and overdevelopemnt problems.
School buildings too close to boundaries will overpower residences resulting in increased noise impacting elderly residences and home office residents. The schools expension will cause property devaluation of $150-$200,000 for neighboring properties.

Objection to the CHS and CWS

I object to the proposed overdevelopment of the combined schools, and consequential traffic chaos that will result in safety issues for residents and the students of the 3 surrounding schools, as emergency vehicles will potentially be delayed by 30 minutes during peak times. This is an unacceptable risk. Thankfully, the three emergencies I had in the last couple of years were outside of these hours, but the risk is at the front of my mind.

Living in Ludmila Close I must structure arrival and departure times to avoid the school peaks as the only exit and entry is via Felton Road (East) which can easily gridlock. Even then the next issue is exiting Felton Road as Baker Street can be gridlocked all the way to Pennant Hills Road. It is only if you attend during peak times can the chaos and reckless driving be appreciated and understood as frustrated parents try to get their children to and from school before and after work. I note that on one accession it took close to 1 hour to travel the 300 metres from my home to Baker Street to attend a doctor’s appointment.

It is perplexing and concerning that since the last proposal that was withdrawn, when only the primary school was being expanded, the current proposal which now includes the High school still relies of the narrow local streets for access. I attended the information session by Schools Infrastructure and was profoundly disappointed by the responses provided. The people were nice and pleasant however they did not take any concerns on board about access by emergency vehicles and general illegal parking by parents and teachers in local streets. They said that they hoped that the car and bus link roads might provide a solution; and that it might be better than nothing. They were not convinced themselves about the proposal.

In relation to the narrow and inadequate footpaths to the schools, it was disappointing that Schools Infrastructure merely stated that it an issue that Parramatta Council needs to address. As the roads are narrow and the footpaths are narrow it is unclear how this could be fixed.

In my view the school land area is totally unsuitable to house the proposed 4000 students and staff. The regional selective High school which is only 200 metres from Carlingford West occupies a huge parcel of land in comparison.

Access to all three schools is compromised by the narrow streets and limited access for buses, with the proposed bus link seeming to be a mere thought bubble by Schools infrastructure to support their over development of the site, due to previous poor infrastructure planning in this high growth area. It is sad that Carlingford was not considered for a Master plan as the high-density development commenced 20 years ago, with the plan including a new Primary school and High school. The current proposal a mere Band-Aid solution without considering the educational needs of the area or the suitability of the site for such a massive development.

Please find attached a submission

see attachment

I object to the proposed works detailed in the EIS and accompanying reports.
The already existing serious risk to safety and well-being of local and school communities will only be exacerbated by these overdevelopment plans.
The density of high rise in Carlingford along Pennant Hills Road / Carlingford Road has increased considerably beyond the original plans of more than 10 years ago – these increased density developments should be required to find room to build a suitable primary school.
The following comments are made in relation to the EIS documents:
- Recent news reports quote that Carlingford West Public School (CWPS) is 50% out of area attendees and the projected school population is a reduction of less than 9%. The current traffic load of more than 800 vehicles during school dropoff and pickup is unlikely to change until this is addressed.
- The traffic report (all 340+ pages) doesn’t include the traffic from James Ruse Agricultural High School (JRAHS) – also on the roundabout leading to CWPS and the high volume of bus traffic for the JRAHS
- The projected percentage of students walking or cycling to school is more than optimistic given there are no cycleways and most parents are likely to opt to drive rather than allow primary children to navigate the busy roads walking unaccompanied (Carlingford / Pennant Hills Road is No. 5 accident black spot)
- The addition of more pedestrian crossings is a commendable safety improvement – but will to add to traffic volumes and delays unless there is traffic control to regulate pedestrian flows and allow vehicles to enter and exit streets.

Please see attached document

Please see attachment for statement

Since the introduction of demountables to accommodate more students the traffic problem in this area became worse. This problem was never resolved yet residents voiced their concerns and still we have the same problem. Whenever I leave my home, I make sure that I leave before two thirty and do not return until four pm because it is very unsafe. These are conditions you have forced on us.
The congestion in the Kingsdene streets continues to worsen. The narrow streets are clogged with parking on both sides and parents trying to get as close as possible to school for drop-off and pickup. Exiting out of Kingsdene with the increase in student population has become very difficult, the traffic lights at Westminster Ave cause a bank up of traffic around Kingsdene oval and Bettington Rd lights cause long queues with the extra cars from CWPS, Kings and Tara.
The proposed turning circle on the western side of CWPS will not solve any traffic issues. Cars will still queue in Felton Rd (west) and parents will use other streets to bypass the queue. Cars will still clog Westminster Ave, Arcadian Cct and Felton Rd.
The proposed buildings are taller than any other buildings in the Kingsdene area. Their positioning will see them tower over the residences. There will be significant impacts on privacy, noise levels will be far worse than when demountable classrooms were placed on the boundaries, and sunlight to our properties will diminish. This affects our quality of life.
The proposal does not address any of the issues raised by the residents in the Carlingford area. It seems DPE, CWPS and CHS are not interested in being a good neighbor but continue to prefer confrontation and extremely poor consultation with the local community.

Refer attachment

Please see attachment

The current enrollment policy cannot effectively prevent the out of area enrollments which leads to a significant enrollment increasement along with the high rise apartments in the catchment. I strongly suggest the department of education to amend the policy and request the school principles to check the students' residential addresses annually.

We are concerned about the school size and how it has grown outside the guidelines. This has led to overcrowding, and poor conditions for students and significant impact on the local community. 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 which has caused the traffic issues, resulting in residents being trapped at drop-off and pick-up times. There are safety issues at these times with the narrow streets, cars parked on both sides and drivers who won’t obey the road rules or be courteous to others.