By XAVIER SMERDON
AS POINT Cook’s roads struggle with crippling congestion every morning and night, the suburb is also sitting on an “education time bomb”, according to a local advocate.
Member of the Point Cook Action Group and mother of two young children, Alice Osborne, said she was concerned about the lack of planning for senior schools in the area.
“Our primary schools are bursting at the seams, but what happens when the preponderance of primary age children in Point Cook require Senior Education?” Ms Osborne said.
“Point Cook residents are already sending primary and secondary age kids to schools as far away as Melton, Bacchus Marsh and Geelong.”
Ms Osborne said statistics from the 2011 Census showed the huge number of children under 15 years of age in Point Cook, yet the Minister for Planning, Matthew Guy, had recently said that the demographic of the area did not demand more P-12 schools.
“However, as there has been no planning or land set aside to build high schools when they are required, there will not be any left after the little remaining open space has been developed into yet more housing,” she said.
“Education, quite rightly, is a key community concern, and the only way for Point Cook to get the schools it needs is for the community to speak out and to tell those responsible that our situation is at breaking point, and better planning and funding allocation is desperately required in Point Cook.”
Star approached Mr Guy for comment but he did not respond before deadline.
Ms Osborne is now asking all residents to write to Mr Guy to demand action.
