Guildford: Plans for childcare centre at 271 Excelsior St

Residents have pleaded for a planning panel to reject a childcare centre where they claim children will be exposed to “future Underbelly characters” and “crackheads”. Find out the decision.

Residents have unsuccessfully pleaded for a planning panel to reject a childcare centre at Guildford where they fear children will be exposed to “future Underbelly characters” and “crackheads”.

A double-storey facility for 32 children is planned for 271 Excelsior St, which is next to a laneway that a long-time resident says attracts anti-social behaviour such as drug use.

“It’s been a haven for future Underbelly characters for the last 40 years,’’ the woman told the Cumberland Local Planning Panel on Wednesday.

“It really bothers me that a childcare centre would be potentially put there at high risk.

“The last thing you want on the other side of the fence are crackheads.

“We need to address the fact that that is a laneway full of undesirable characters.’’

Two other residents addressed the panel and complained about the lack of consultation the council undertook to update them about the project, and one said the laneway was a flood risk.

However, the panel approved the childcare centre, where a house stands. A small cluster of shops also flanks the pedestrian laneway.

This house will be bulldozed to make way for the childcare centre.

The first application for the childcare centre in April last year proposed a three-storey building for 48 children and 12 car spaces. It attracted 16 feedback submissions.

The amended version now proposes a smaller centre with 16 less children, two storeys and eight car spots.

The woman who addressed the panel also rejected the need for another childcare centre in the suburb.

“Why build another childcare centre where there’s already an oversupply and needs are already being met?’’ she said.

A submission argued that there are 25 centres within 2km of the site “and many have vacancies” but the council’s response in a report said there were no limits on the number of childcare centres permitted within any particular spot.

As part of the approval, the panel recommended several conditions including more examination of the laneway’s safety and the addition of a pedestrian crossing or median strip for Excelsior St.

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