Annandale Neighbourhood Centre 77-79 Johnston Street Annandale NSW 2038

As Executive committee member I would like to clarify a concern I raised about the storage of equipment for an After School Age centre at Annandale Neighbourhood centre. I raised a concern that there would need to be a storage facility at ANC.

The DA states that existing tables and chairs at ANC will be used. However these are adult height not child size and are developmentally inappropriate for children and thus do not meet Education and Care National Regulations requirements. The concept of a mobile service appears flawed in as much as it would not meet the regulations and could not provide a quality service with limited equipment that needs to be transported.
Hence the need for a storage shed.

My objections to the Development Application for Out of School Care at the Annandale Neighbourhood Centre (ANC), your reference D/2014/635, are:

1. Council should be working with the state government and OOSH to address issues that are limiting the number of OOSH places at Annandale's three (3) purpose built and operated primary schools.

2. No traffic study has been provided - the traffic study on the website is for Balmain Town Hall.

3. It is unlikely that parents travelling north along Johnston Street, will drive around the block to access Johnston's Lane, or complete an even more complicated manoeuvre to park on Johnston Street, in front of the ANC. They will invariably park across the road and run the traffic gauntlet, as there is no crossing close to the ANC.

This behavior is demonstrated everyday at child care centres and schools around Annandale (which have crossings) and at the ANC (which does not). There will be an increase of traffic in Johnston's Laneway, Booth and Collins Street impacting St Brendan's children's safety.

4. Boys and Girls (aged 5-11) would need to use the public toilets at the ANC. This has not been identified as a risk in the assessment report. The toilets within the back hall do not have doors and are designed for pre-school children as is the play area. Also, the centre is used for a variety of public activities and I would expect checking its safety each day will not be practical.

5. The acoustic assessment states that school age children, who have spent a day in school will make the same level of noise as 0-5 year olds. I can tell you that children at St Brendan's despite their higher fence, regularly call out to passersby to return their balls, which have flown over the fence and onto the road. The fencing at the ANC is much lower and the glass around the back hall is not designed for active sports. Balls running onto Johnston Street, doesn't bear thinking about.

6. The impact on existing users, in particular the playgroup and occasional care facilities, including cleaning and maintenance of the building and grounds has not been accurately assessed.

7. Council should support after school activities. They could do this by providing a bus service, promoting and/or discounted rental of facilities to:
a) community groups (Scouts, PCYC, Music, Junior Sport, Annandale Creative Arts Centre and other clubs)
b) enviro educator in the Dairy at White's Creek Valley
c) independent providers of specific activities at the ANC (including the back hall) and the Dairy at White's Creek

I am a member of Executive Committee of Annandale Playgroup which runs 4 sessions of playgroups for 0-5 year olds providing a quality play environment for this age group and a service to parents at home with children or working part time.

The Playgroup committee has concerns about the running of an After School service in Annandale Neighbourhood Centre back hall and grounds, the same area as playgroup.

I think that one thing that really stands out in terms of running an After School Care Centre and this is the fact that the After School Care centre must have storage facilities in order to meet Education and Care Services National Regulations (which govern OOSH centres). Part 4.3 on Physical Environment states " The approved provider of an education and care service must ensure that each child being educated and cared for by the education and care service has access to sufficient furniture and developmentally appropriate equipment suitable for the education and care of that child". eg the service must provide tables and chairs and equipment and these need to be stored. They cannot be carried to the centre!

Where will this equipment be stored? Presumably a new shed would need to be built. Who will pay for a new storage facility if it needs to be built? How will this fit with ANC's new landscaping plan?

Also in relation to the existing sandpit - this is not "developmentally appropriate for school age children and should be out of bounds for OOSH service. Also the sandpit is used by 0-3's at playgroup and they put objects in their mouth and may choke. What happens if a school age child drops a coin or tablet in sandpit and a playgroup toddler swallows it?

In relation to parking, a change to "drop off " short time parking was introduced, this would disadvantage playgroup parents as they could not park in front of ANC. They are unloading babies & prams and supervising toddlers and may have to walk longer distances, possibly in rain and this is difficult with babies & toddlers either walking or in prams. School age children are capable of walking to a car in neighbouring streets and have more road sense.

Carpet areas in playgroup would need to be kept clean as babies use this area and are more vulnerable to infections. Who cleans the carpet after each session? Who pays?

In terms of grassed areas it is inevitable that the grass would die off with 20-30 children using it each afternoon. This is not the case with current usage by Occasional Care and 4 sessions of playgroup - the grass is fine with this amount of use. Who would pay for regrassing and relaying of grass would mean many weeks when outside area is unusable.

This suggested use of the ANC is totally inappropriate.
The area is re;actively small and has limited outdoor area. Y3-Y6 chn. need to be able to be active--certainly for part of their ASC time. There is a limit to how much time they can be positively engaged in in-door activities. It's unrealistic. If it's to be for K-Y2 chn. then I'd suggest beds would be more appropriate as the walk from ANPS will exhaust them! A shuttle bus would add to the cost thus negating the possible use of A C for some parents.
Lack of storage space for equipment, re-organisation of furniture, cleaning up to a standard appropriate for the 0-3 y o (this includes safety aspects of sandpits and other areas) and lack of adequate no. toilets etc. would also be a problem.
Then of course there'd additional difficulties with the p/u facilities for parents in an area already devoid of adequate spaces for residents nearby + businesses.

Would it be more reasonable to utilise the community house/facility in White St, adjoining the Creek, the gardens, wetlands, skate bowl, playground, basketball courts, tennis courts and Cohen Park? Stage 3 children can walk there from ANPS in about 5 mins, thus relieving positions on-site for K-Y4 chn. it's a perfect solutrionb.
Gretchen Gamble