The Yarra City Council seems to have its municipality’s priorities wrong.
It appears to have lightheartedly decided, for their “legitimate” reasons, to extend Old Heidelberg Road by less than five hundred metres in order to reach the Darebin Parklands and Creek, going through the grounds of Alphington Grammar School, simply because 350 locals wanted to.
Alphington Grammar School, established in 1989, is not the first institution to occupy the grounds in question. Parade College was there before (1956–1981). The fence and the gate have been in place since the mid-1950s.
No one, especially in our times, can conceive of a school without a secure fence. A wide road open to the public running through school grounds is, to say the least, utterly absurd.
When we talk about the safety of students, we refer not only to the risk of vehicles but also to the threat of intruders and potential predators entering the school grounds. Even with the school’s CCTV in place, it would be extremely difficult to monitor what is happening under the current Council proposal.
As a result, a protective fence would need to run along both sides of the road, separating the public from the private and effectively creating a physical barrier—dividing the school in two. The two school buildings on either side of the proposed road share facilities for both students and staff. This action would destroy the cohesion of the school and create multiple problems for its proper functioning.
No responsible Council would act in such a manner. Doing so would demonstrate a significant degree of irresponsibility on their part.
Therefore, the current end of Old Heidelberg Road must remain closed, gated, and fenced.
Why all this madness when there is an alternative way to access the Darebin Parklands and Creek via Farm Road further down? Our legitimate question to the Council is: Why don’t they use that route?
Why this stubbornness from the Council when, according to the school’s Vice-Captain George Tsianakas, even VicRoads has rejected the proposal and offered another very well-funded ($9.1 million) and safer alternative?
Perhaps greater publicity could be given to the Council’s irrational behaviour if programs like A Current Affair, Today Tonight, or other media outlets took up the issue.
Let me kindly remind the Council that the best course of action would be to abandon this thoughtless decision to turn Old Heidelberg Road into a highway to the Darebin Parklands and Creek and destroy a great school in the process.
