Email to Kelvin Thomson

by Catherine Hall

This is a copy of the email I sent to Kelvin Thomson on April 11, 2009.

Subject: schools for new suburb of 3000 homes while neglect in Coburg which will also gain 3000 homes

Dear Kelvin,
I was angered at the apparent inequity inherent in the announcement of the Federal and State initiative to build a new suburb in Maribyrnong.
This development will have 3000 new homes in 10 years,"equivalent to Castlemaine " which is exactly the home number and time frame for The Coburg Initiative.
It was announced that there will be new schools [note the plural] included in the planning.

While this is laudible it highlights what Coburg ISN'T getting.

Coburg has the greatest number of young children in Moreland and the greatest expected increase in those numbers and yet in this region there are 22 pimary schools and not one high school.
Coburg already has great need for a high school ,as evidenced by High School for Coburg [HSC] data and the 850 very concerned families who have joined us thus far.
The primary school community ,and thus the wider one,is being dismantled as children travel to many different high schools, all out of their area.
Add to this dire situation development the size of Castlemaine -not to mention Pentridge and Kodak and, unlike Maribyrnong, still we are not deemed worthy of consideration for a school.
Would you please ask Bronwyn Pike and Julia Gillard to give the region from West Preston across to Pacoe Vale [which includes the Coburg Initiative] the same consideration of education provision that has apparently occurred for the new Maribyrnong suburb?

Kind Regards

Catherine Hall
Coburg North 3058