PARENTS at St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School at Kingscliff are urging Tweed Shire Councillors not to approve a bid to lease off part of their children’s playground to the neighbouring shopping centre.
Chen Yu Pty Ltd, managers of Kingscliff Shopping Village, have lodged a development application with Tweed Shire Council (DA13/0397) seeking permission to lease a section of St Anthony’s School playground off the Catholic Parish.
They are proposing to develop the northern strip of the school’s playground into an additional 26 car parking bays to cater for staff at the shopping centre, which is anchored by a Woolworths store.
The DA is expected to be brought before councillors at the next council meeting on November 21.
St Anthony’s Parent Forum president Annie Banbury said parents were vehemently opposed to the lease being approved despite the Kingscliff Catholic Parish giving it the thumbs up.
“We are strongly opposed to this deal going ahead,” Ms Banbury said.
“The Development Application was lodged without any consultation with parents. We do not want to lose any more of our playground to the shopping centre.
“Our school is growing and it is vital our children have enough space to run around and do their sporting activities. We already have to go off-site for some sporting events as our grounds are not big enough – to lose any more of our playground would be devastating.”
Parents will address councillors at the upcoming Community Access Meeting on November 14 where they will present a petition with more than 400 signatures attached.
Ms Banbury said this was the second time the shopping centre had sought land from the school, after a significant portion of the playground was already leased to the retailer two years ago.
“We have already surrendered a significant section of our playground to the shopping centre,” Ms Banbury said.
“It is like déja vu – on neither occasion were parents invited to discuss the issue at all. This time we are not going to take it lying down. We want councillors to support us in protecting the wellbeing of our children.”
Ms Banbury said the section of land under question was at the school’s northern boundary, directly adjacent to the existing shopping centre car park – the best and most used part of the playground.
“This is the best part of our playground as it is the highest section of land and the most flood-proof,” she said.
“It is used every day for soccer and other ball games and is the most popular area with the students. Much of the remaining section of playground is boggy and unusable during the wet season. It would be devastating to our children to lose land.
“In this day and age when obesity is at record levels and we are doing our best to promote healthy lifestyles, we cannot believe we are being forced to fight to save our playground.
“We call on all of our councillors to support our fight to save our playground.”
