Flynn community groups are seeking an urgent meeting with ACT Government ministers following a shock Anzac Day announcement for Flynn Primary School that appears to leave the Flynn community out in the cold again.
“We were shocked to learn over the Anzac weekend that the Government appears to have turned its back on Flynn again and ignored the detailed plan for a sustainable community centre that has been worked up by our community over the past four years,” according to Flynn community spokesperson, Roger Nicoll.
The community is bewildered by the Government’s announcement because we thought that we were in a consultation process over the past eight months, as part of a joint working group, to determine the future use of the Flynn Primary School.
The announcement of a large childcare centre occupying half the building and the lack of detail about plans for further use of the site is at odds with what the community understood was agreed at working groups meetings with government officials over the past eight months.
“Now the government has announced the very thing that we said wouldn’t work and wouldn’t meet the needs of the Flynn community. It seems like school closures all over again,” said Mr Nicoll.
“A childcare centre of this size will not produce a viable community centre. It will not meet the top priority need to re-connect the broader Flynn community following the closure of Flynn’s only community centre and facilities at Flynn’s primary school,” he said.
“We do support a smaller community-based childcare centre as just one part of an integrated and sustainable hub that would also meet the needs of all age groups in the community from the youngest to the oldest,” Mr Nicoll said.
The John Flynn Community Group and Flynn Primary School Parents and Citizens Association have gone to extraordinary lengths to find a workable and amicable solution based on a multi-use hub with a wide range of services managed through a community consortium. We have assessed the community’s needs, found the partners who can best deliver the services, and have developed details of the business case.
The community consortium includes the John Flynn Community Group, a community based childcare provider, renewable energy providers and social business innovators with confirmed interest from a small independent school and adult education and community arts providers.
“We are keen to meet urgently to clarify with government the details of its budget commitment and how the $4 million will best be used to restore the community in Flynn,” said Mr Nicoll.
The good news is that that the community consortium believes it can deliver the sustainable community centre including an integrated community-based childcare, adult education, community and performing arts, resource and drop-in centres and education facilities within the $4 million budgeted, without compromising the heritage value of the site.
News articles at: ABC news online. Canberra Times articles are no longer available on their website. Scanned articles are below.
April 25 2010, p6
Editorial, April 25 2010
