Tuesday, 20 June 2023

 Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (13:16): Last week the new campus of the wonderful North Melbourne Primary School was finally opened, and the community is so pleased to have this new facility – something that happened due to the hard work and dedication of local parents and local residents working with my office and fighting to make sure that North Melbourne students have all the facilities they need. We also fought hard to make sure this school would be a second campus of the existing North Melbourne Primary School – a wonderful school – so our local community would not be divided, and it is wonderful to see that happen.

But unfortunately the planning around the school, such as how kids can get safely to and from school between the old and the new campus, has been very much lacking. Over the past month I have heard from so many concerned parents about pedestrian and road safety issues around the new Molesworth Street campus, which is the one for preps and early grades. Many families have children at both campuses of North Melbourne Primary and have been disappointed by the lack of safe road infrastructure between the school sites. The school has been open for weeks but there are still no pedestrian crossings, and the parents have been told that installation works are still months away. Meanwhile, families have to contend with traffic on a number of major roads, including cars driving 60 kilometres an hour on Harker Street and lots of different traffic, including trams and cars on Abbotsford Street. There are no signs indicating a school zone or warning drivers that they are nearing a new school, and this needs to be fixed.