Future site use

It is finally clear what the school closures is all about. There is no way the governement could have got through the idea that schools should be closed so that the land could be sold to developers. But carry out three consultations over two years (ignoring the community each time) and it can be pushed through before the election.

I have absolutely no faith that the opinions of the community will be listened to in this consulation, just like the previous two consulations. But for what it is worth, I believe that the entire site should be retained for community use and the green space retained.

There are vacant blocks in Cook that are poorly kept by the government with signs up saying they are "Urban Green Space". I would much prefer to lose some of these than the school grounds in the centre of the suburb.

I dont agree. But I could agree to an urban village as I have seen suggested elsewhere. There should be open parkland to retain the feeling of space but limited housing, cafes and perhaps arts and business incubator uses would all add to the place. This could be funded with proceeds from the sales.

Overall I think the purdon reports are ill concieved and lack innovation. These sites are a unique opportunity.

Anyone with any knowledge of the Cook site would know that Cook has certainly not been an 'underused site'! Prior to the appalling decision to close Cook last year, the school site had the optimum community balance of a virtually full (91%)school, ballet school, playgroups assn headquarters, many playgroups, a full pre school, other community users in the west wing, a large school hall with fully equipped gymnasium that was variously used by community groups(eg tai chi), a great school oval used by dog walkers and family groups, shady willows, and of course, the wonderful playground with shade structure adjacent to the church which was fully utlised by the whole community. The Cook school area operated beautifully as a community hub and there was always someone down there enjoying the facilities. It's hard to think of any suburb around with better use of existing infrastructure than this and its no wonder that the Cook community is bitter about the Government's determination to destroy forever our core community area for the sake of developers. There might be underused sites someone in Canberra that might need some sort of development, but Cook is certainly not one of them. The Cook site is totally unsuited to either town houses or multi-storey apartment blocks! Surely Tower 1801's comments along these lines were tongue-in-cheek!

The open space is certainly not under-used as you suggest. It may not be being used as high density housing but it is a much utilised and very important part of the community. Recreation, exercise and outdoor socialising are also important parts of a happy and healthy existence. I agree that there is an issue of housing shortage within the ACT however getting rid of open parks and childrens playgrounds are not the answer.

Transport links? What are you talking about??????? Do you think we have a monorail going to the Belconnen Mall via the City? In any case, there is already a place for you Tower 1801. It's called Sydney - you might want to check it out sometime. It has monorails, crowded buses,trains,grumpy, frazzled commuters, cafes late night restaurants and everything.

You may be taking all comments seriously, but as with the initial school closure 'consultation' the decision has been made at the outset.

Viv Straw says in 'The Chronicle' this week that the current process has been "fairly quiet." I would have thought that everything that needs to be said by the community has been said already.

CLDTLF

This Cook open space is used by the whole of Belconnen. The ballet school, little athletics and dog walking all attract people from a wide area way beyond Cook, just as Cook Primary had enrolments from a wide catchment area. Often there is so much activity that the whole site is in use. Little athletics uses much more than the oval, families play soccer on the school site, the areas planted by the school community are important for many, the church attendees use the playground. This regional hub can be better utilised by the Government acquiring the church car park to maintain that use and building barbeques near the soccer ground and play equipment that the school community built. This will compliment the proposed "arts hub" use, as families that travel to deliver one child to an activity need space to occupy them while they wait to collect and drive home again. This reduces traffic and fuel wastage.

The preschool should be the new location for the playgroup association. It is too small for a community hall but ideal for the Playgroup Association and regional playgroups needing spaces to meet.

This is not at all a suitable site for an aged facility as experience shows that placing them adjacent to public land leaves the residents vulnerable after hours. Alienating the strip between the school buildings and the athletics oval would destroy the cohesiveness of the site.

When are you going to organise opportunities for people to meet in person to discuss our comments? We were told we would be letterboxed but I have checked all week and nothing has been delivered, put on the community notice board at Cook Shops, posted at the school or otherwise advised to Cook residents. I registered with the Purdon survey but have not been contacted about this consultation. I found an article in the Chronicle that said this was the week for consultation, but nothing has happened.

Is this another example of the Government's so called "consultation" where the outcome is decided before we have our say?

As a Cook resident for 20 years I completely agree. Keep the old school oval and the Little Athletics Oval as conjoined open space for best community use of the site.

The apparent proposal to use the existing buildings and school hall for an arts/performing hub and then to build housing/aged care etc near the ovals makes absolutely no sense. Noise would be a major problem. There's no sense putting any kind of residential use development next to a performing centre (with after-hours concerts etc).

I would have to say that the current piecemeal planning approach is planning gone mad, in that it has precluded a holistic planning decision. Consider this scenario. The school buildings and associated land are retained for use as a community arts centre and the remaining land is developed for housing, quite possibly to the detriment of the Cook Oval and the surrounding open space. It is very naïve to believe that retaining all the school buildings for use as a community arts centre will be viable in the long-term. Without doubt, at some stage someone from government will ask “what return are we getting on the millions of capital investment here” and the answer will be very little. The next step will be to knock down the school buildings and put housing development on the land where the current school buildings are, in addition to the first lot of housing. The end result will be no school and an oval with a reduced area of surrounding open space of diminished quality and functionality. Clearly the current piecemeal approach to planning is capable of producing undesirable outcomes.