‘Crazy and highly selfish’: Police deployed to supervise private school drop off, pick up

Police will be deployed to monitor parents dropping off and picking up children from a prestigious Sydney girl’s school in response to traffic complaints from its inner-city neighbours.

SCEGGS Darlinghurst will also hire a traffic warden as part of a six-month trial, while the City of Sydney will introduce changes to parking.

An artist’s impression of the proposed redevelopment of Wilkinson House at SCEGGS Darlinghurst. Credit: SCEGGS Darlinghurst

SCEGGS Darlinghurst head Jenny Allum said traffic in the inner-city suburb had been disrupted for years by major construction works.

“As is the case with many inner-city schools, the issue of cars being parked in designated school drop-off and pick-up zones causes the school and our parents significant difficulty too,” she said. “We hope that an increased police presence during this trial will assist, as well as our employment of a traffic controller in Forbes Street to provide support with parental pick-up and drop-off.”

A NSW Police spokeswoman said schools were routinely patrolled during pick up and drop off to ensure compliance with road rules and the safety of students.

Allum said the police presence was designed to deter wrongdoing such as illegal parking, driving on the wrong side of the road and using private property for U-turns “and booking those who do the wrong thing”.

The head of The Horizon tower strata committee Marlyn Richardson said the narrow streets surrounding SCEGGS Darlinghurst were ill-equipped to cope with large amounts of traffic:.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Darlinghurst resident Rodney Hanratty said it did not make sense for parents to drive their children to and from school when the area had plentiful public transport.

“Our inner-city street is clogged every school day with a parade of expensive 4WDs,” he said. “It’s crazy and highly selfish.”

Complaints have also come from the nearby Horizon Apartments, a 43-storey luxury tower designed by Harry Seidler that has been home to some of Australia’s richest people.

The head of the Horizon strata committee Marlyn Richardson said the narrow streets surrounding the school were ill-equipped to cope with large amounts of traffic: “Frequently drivers use the Horizon driveway turning circle as a convenient solution - to the detriment of resident safety and convenience.”

The new traffic measures come as SCEGGS faces opposition to plans to convert a heritage-listed building into classrooms.

Allum said the $21 million project promised a new lease of life to the historic Wilkinson House, while “respecting the beauty and heritage of the building and providing excellent teaching and learning spaces too”.

An earlier plan to bulldoze Wilkinson House as part of a major redevelopment was blocked in 2020 by the Independent Planning Commission.

The Horizon strata committee raised concern about construction noise in its submission to the NSW Planning Department, which it said was not compliant with industry standards and would adversely affect residents during the estimated 21-month building period.

Hanratty said existing traffic issues would be “clearly exacerbated” during the construction of the school’s new building.

“The school has a long history of ignoring the local community: the heritage Wilkinson House was only saved from demolition by the school with a local campaign,” he said. “The neighbourhood does not trust the school but only because of the history of arrogance to the local community.”

The school’s building plans were labelled “disappointing” by the National Trust’s director of conservation David Burdon.

Burdon said the current heritage impacts to Wilkinson House meant the project was not an “adaptive re-use” of the building and undermined “all of the other significant (and often award-winning) genuine, inventive, adaptive re-use projects” in NSW.

“We would argue that for this project to genuinely meet the agreed community perceptions of adaptive re-use, a far more inventive proposal is required which retains and responds to the existing fabric and plan of the Wilkinson House building,” he said.

A City of Sydney spokeswoman said the council had worked extensively with SCEGGS to resolve the traffic concerns of residents.

However, the council had requested changes to the school’s building plans to mitigate the loss of heritage values.

“To create open plan classrooms, architectural plans submitted for the project include the removal of the roof and all internal parts of the building, aside from the ground floor entrance lobby and hall,” she said. “Given the extent of the demolition, the proposal is not consistent with best practice conservation policies.”

Allum said the school was aware of its neighbours’ concerns about the project including noise and traffic issues: “We expect any conditions of the approval would include measures to mitigate the impacts of the construction process.”

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