Frenchs Forest rezoning backflip over plans for new school, as announcment finally due to be revealed

BUREAUCRATS   from the Education Department had planned to sell a rezoned Frenchs Forest high school and take the windfall – without building a new school.

Frenchs Forest, which is awaiting rezoning surrounding the new hospital.

• High school to be rezoned for housing
• Hospital precinct plans delayed again as government departments argue
• Hospital protest goes viral
• Calls for 10 per cent of land around hospital to be affordable housing

BUREAUCRATS   from the Education Department had planned to sell a rezoned Frenchs Forest high school and take the windfall – without building a new school.

The Manly Daily can reveal the department planned to instead send students to Davidson and Killarney Heights high schools.

The shutdown has now been shelved after intervention from senior council and State Government representatives, including former Warringah mayor Michael Regan and Wakehurst MP Brad Hazzard.

Residents of Karingal Crescent in Frenchs Forest had parts of their backyards taken away, but then found out their area wouldn’t be rezoned.

An artist impression of the artrium in the new Northern Beaches Hospital, Frenchs Forest.

An Education spokesman yesterday said the department believed there was no need to relocate or remove The Forest High School – but assured that, if students are required to move, it would happen after a new school was built.

The plan for the area around the new Northern Beaches Hospital is expected to make Forest High into a town centre with buildings up to nine storeys.

The council is releasing the draft precinct strategy at a meeting tonight.

Mr Regan said he and a number of councillors and senior staffers were briefed on the precinct plan on May 3 which showed the town centre on the school’s site.

Former Warringah major Michael Regan, who’s now part of Northern Beaches Council. Picture: Braden Fastier

“We asked where the new school was to be. The reply sent the room into meltdown,” Mr Regan told the Manly Daily.

Plans to sell the site and not rebuild caused a lengthy delay process, as politicians and the council scrambled to come up with an alternative school site.

A state-of-the-art new school for 900 students has now been promised close by.

Mr Hazzard said he was “beyond furious” when made aware of the proposal.

“(I) called a number of meetings with the government agencies and council planners and told them I would fight them to stop Forest High being closed,” Mr Hazzard said

“As a result, Education and the council started looking at other possible school sites where a 21st century Forest High could be built.

“I then obtained a written promise from the Minister for Education guaranteeing The Forest High School stays on the current site unless a 21st century Forest High is built nearby.”

Mr Regan said until that point, no local MPs were aware of the plans, but soon after Mr Hazzard and Pittwater MP Rob Stokes found out the plan was shelved.

“It was weeks out from the federal election and I knew they would not support that,” Mr Regan said.

Resident Preyesh Odhavjee with LJ Hooker French's Forrest real estate agent Shane Broekman near the hospital site. They’re among locals awaiting rezoning news.

Mr Regan has called on the State Government to use the Frenchs Forest rezoning as a case story of how not to undertake planning.

“They should learn from it,” he said. “Mistakes will always be made, but if they are transparent and honest, and own those mistakes, they can then fix them and look at ways to improve thereby gaining the trust and respect of their community.”

He questioned how some of the state’s top politicians were not consulted.

“How does this happen in this day and age on such critical issues as education and health?” he said.

Minister for Social Housing Brad Hazzard MP

“It is imperative our state departments have the right tools and information available and they test that with their ministers and communicate with the local MPs.

Mr Regan said the education department needed to be subject to a review, which needs to “look inwardly and reform its bureaucrats”.

“The Department of Education a few years earlier told me – in answer to a question of how did they not predict a 700-plus increase in pupils at Manly Vale – that ‘kids don’t live in units’,” he said.

Frenches forest and the new hospital

“I was just so annoyed. How out of touch is their modelling. To then compound that years later saying that we can close another high school ... really, what is going on? I get that school populations will fluctuate, so build schools that will cope with that. Have we learnt nothing from the closure of Beacon Hill High?”

Premier Mike Baird said he was “not aware of the allegations made by the former mayor. However, this issue requires all levels of government to work constructively together”.

“The Department of Education is working closely with the Northern Beaches Council on the proposed Hospital Precinct Plan,” he said. “There is no doubt we need additional school capacity, not less.”

A spokesman for the Education Department repeated statements that there was “no educational need for the Forest High School to be relocated or for the site to be rezoned”.

“If Northern Beaches Council, in conjunction with other government agencies, considers the Forest High School site should at some stage be rezoned, the Department of Education will consider its options,” he said.

“The community can be assured that the school will continue to exist on the current site, irrespective of any zoning, unless and until a new school is constructed.”

He also said any newly constructed school would need to be within a short distance from the current site.

Planning Minister Rob Stokes declined to enter into the debate.

“It is a great opportunity to create a new centre based around a new hospital and new transport infrastructure,” Mr Stokes said.

“I understand it is a draft, so now is the time for the community to have a say.”