Childcare centre proposed for Woodland Cres, Narellan

Macarthur residents could soon have access to a new childcare centre, which developers say will blend in with homes on the street. Read about the plans.

Plans for a childcare centre at Woodland Cres have been lodged with Camden Council.

A $3.18m childcare centre, capable of caring for 80 children, could be built at Narellan under a development application lodged with Camden Council.

The centre would include four indoor play rooms and an outdoor play area, sleep rooms, administrative areas including staff rooms and offices, kitchen, laundry, storerooms and other amenities.

The purpose-built facility would operate with a maximum of 80 children at 39-41 Woodland Cres.

There would be 16 places for children aged under two years old, 24 spots for those aged two to three years and another 40 for children aged three to six years.

The single-storeydevelopment also includes 20 parking spaces with the hours of operation set to be 7am to 6pm from Monday to Friday with the facility to provide 13 educators.

“The proposed development has also been designed to commensurate with the low density residential character of the immediate locality by delivering a modern single storey built form set within a landscape setting that will be compatible with the existing built form patterns along Nelson St,” planning documents state.

If approved, the centre would care for up to 80 children.

Last year, a report from Victoria University-affiliated Mitchell Institute revealed some three million people in NSW were living in what it qualified as “childcare deserts”, which are places where there are more than three children for every childcare place available.

The geographical divide is stark, with suburbs in the inner city having a range of childcare options, while parents in the southwest and western suburbs, along with regional NSW, have to compete for very few places.

In Campbelltown, the data reveals there are at least three children in the suburb for every one childcare place while in Camden and Wollondilly, there are at least two.

It also showed more than 58 per cent of Campbelltown is considered a “childcare desert”. The same term is applied to 35.28 per cent of Wollondilly and 16.7 per cent of Camden.