October 19, 2012

St John’s Lutheran School’s Parents and Friends committee has launched an online petition and is urging supporters of the school’s planned Adermann Park expansion to sign it.

“The school is currently taking steps to purchase some of Adermann Park to be able to expand to include a High School. The P&F would like to show their support for this purchase and ask the school community to also show their support by signing this petition,” the petition reads.

As we reported on October 14, there is also a petition online opposing the sale of the portion of the parkland.

When southburnett.com.au checked this afternoon the “for” petition had 55 signatures and the “against” had 44.

Meanwhile, the South Burnett Regional Council has now advertised for comments from the public as part of the development of a Draft Management Plan for the lot at the heart of the campaigns.

The Department of Natural Resources and Mines asked Council to prepare this plan and will use it in the decision-making process to determine whether the land can be sold.

Comments must be received at council by the close of business on November 2.

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Greens spokesman Grant Newson has questioned how the expansion of a private school “will benefit the whole community” as has been stated during the public debate over the proposal.

Mr Newson, who has been campaigning against the sale of the portion of Adermann Park in Kingaroy to St John’s Lutheran School, said the sale would “only benefit the small portion of residents who can afford several thousands of dollars allowing their child entry into the school”.

He said the words “excess parklands” had also been used but there was “definitely no ‘excess’ parkland within Kingaroy”.

The costs of maintaining the park had also been mentioned.

“The maintenance costs incurred by Council for parks has been part of their costing since the inception of public parks. It isn’t a great deal out of the Budget and has never been part of the excuse used for raising our rates yet. In fact we all pay a $25 environmental levy on our rates,” he said.

“I consider public parks an essential part of any town area. They are limited in size, number and are restricted from growing by development surrounding them.

“It is Council’s responsibility to ensure that adequate areas are reserved to accommodate the population – fact. You expect the population to grow but you want to see a reduction in public parkland available for this growth.”

Mr Newson said he believed comments relaying the wishes of the Adermann family had also been “very selective”.

“(It was) quoted that the family ‘is just very happy to have been thought of during this process’. You forgot to continue reading the rest of the sentence. My understanding is that the family are glad for the ‘opportunity’ to express their views but are disappointed with the thought of losing a portion of the legacy left in their family’s honour,” Mr Newson said.

“Council should be ashamed at even contemplating reducing what little public spaces residents have. The selling off of public assets for short-term profit is not the answer.”

[Updated October 21: An earlier version of this article stated that the St John’s petition followed the opposition petition. It fact, it was the other way around.] 

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