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New Children's Centre at Marrickville SouthWhat does this project involve?Over the last several years Marrickville Council has conducted significant investigations into responding to the identified need for additional childcare services in the Marrickville South area and other requirements emerging from the assessment of child care needs across the Marrickville LGA, as well as to address the current accommodation issues at the existing May Murray Children's Centre in Premier Street, Marrickville. Council obtained development consent for a new children's centre in 2002 within the grounds of the now constructed Debbie and Abbey Borgia Community Recreation Centre at Steel Park, Illawarra Road, Marrickville. At the time of this proposal, it was proposed to re-locate the services of the existing 19-place May Murray Children's Centre to this site, and to expand the service to a new 59 space facility This proposal was prioritised within Council’s 2005/06 budget and management planning process, and also as part of a program of Major Projects. In Council’s adopted 2005/06 budget, the following funding was allocated in the Major Projects Resources Plan to the Marrickville South Children’s Centre proposal:
In order to provide a more strategic framework to advancing the above proposal, Council resolved in August 2005 to engage consultants to prepare a child care needs assessment for the entire Marrickville LGA. This assessment was subsequently prepared by consultants and the final report titled “Childcare Needs in Marrickville: An Analysis of Childcare Needs for Birth to 12 year olds in the Marrickville LGA” was reported to Council in August 2006. Some of the key recommendations of this report relevant to the Marrickville South Children's Centre proposal included::
In light of the above recommendations, Council officers have conducted an initial assessment of the suitability of a new 59 place children’s centre at Steel Park (the site of Council’s 2002 approved Centre) and within the grounds of Ferncourt and Marrickville West Public Schools. Council has since endorsed the officers’ recommendation of Marrickville West Public School as the preferred site. Council has also reviewed its previous position on the future of the existing May Murray Children’s Centre, and has requested Council officers to provide more information on the feasibility of retaining the current facility for either a retention and upgrade of the current 19-place service for 2-5 year old children, or to be adapted for a 14-place service for birth to 3 year old children, or a pre-school 20-place service for 3-5 year old children. Council has therefore appointed the consultancy consortium JSA Architects and the Childcare Team to investigate the feasibility of new and modified children’s services at Marrickville West Public School and May Murray Children’s Centre. The initial results of these investigations were reported to the 5 March, 2007, Major Projects Steering Committee Meeting. Council officers have also been consulting with major stakeholders on these initial concepts, including the Marrickville West Public School, the NSW Department of Education and Training, and relevant Council officers. The former Minister for Education and Training, and Member for Marrickville, the Hon Carmel Tebbutt, has previously written to Council indicating a general level of support for the proposal in Marrickville West Public School. At its meeting of 15 May, 2007, Council acknowledged an update report on this project and supported an officer's recommendation to conduct further design and financial feasibility investigations for both the May Murray and Marrickville West Public School proposals. A copy of the report to the May Council meeting can be viewed here. A report on the broader financial feasibility of both Council’s existing children’s services, and of the new projects, is expected to be reported to Council in March 2008. In the interim, at its meeting of 20 November, 2007, Council resolved to advance a proposal to adapt classrooms and facilities in the ground floor of the western wing of Marrickville West Public School (MWPS) for a combined Council Out of School Hours (OOSH)/Connect Marrickville service. A copy of the report to Council is provided below. A DA for this proposal was approved by Council at the Development and Environmental Services Committee Meeting on 5 February 2008. Council is currently working with the NSW Department of Education to refine the construction and future licence agreement details for this proposal. In the preparations for a DA for Council’s endorsed May Murray Upgrade proposal, the project team attempted to address the potential for Council to expand the building alterations to improve the functioning of the existing centre, an issue raised by parents and staff. However, it was evident through the qualified cost estimates of a quantity surveyor that such changes would incur costs well beyond Council’s original budget for this project. Council officers therefore sought a revised cost estimate for Council’s original, endorsed design concept, and further resolved to proceed with the preparation of a DA for this concept at its meeting of 20 May 2008. A copy of the report to Council is provided below.
The deliberation on the additional design and funding matters has resulted in a delay of the original project timeline. The revised key project milestones are likely to be:
Council staff will be contacting the parents and staff of the existing May Murray Children’s Centre to update them of this latest project program, and to ensure that suitable contingencies are made during the construction period. It may also be possible to organise the building activities to occur over the Christmas/New Year shut down, so that the disruptions to Council’s service are minimised.
Project timeline
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