All eyes on land

By Jim Mynard
EDRINGTON Ward councillors Brian Hetherton and Mick Morland have called for a moratorium on the sale of Education Department land next to the Timbarra Primary School.
They met to discuss the possible acquisition of the site for the community with Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan and LaTrobe MP Jason Wood at the Timbarra Primary School last Thursday.
Timbarra Primary School principal Jan Adamson hosted the meeting.
The councillors asked that the sale be deferred while the City of Casey prepared a report on the possibility of acquiring the land.
Mr Donnellan said the Education Department would not let the land go at less than its value.
However, both parliamentarians said they would investigate possible pathways that could lead to acquisition of the land.
The meeting agreed that the land would not be used for either a secondary college or technical college.
Cr Morland said projected figures did not support having a secondary college on the site, but both councillors strongly supported it becoming a recreational facility.
However, Mr Wood has since found a precedent that did not preclude a school option.
Mr wood said he felt the land belonged to the Timbarra community and should be given at no cost for a secondary school or sport and recreational facility.
Cr Hetherton strongly argued that they did not make more land and once this was lost to housing it would be gone forever.
“If we do not move now we will never get the property.”
He said a public meeting on the lobby would be held at a date to be fixed when residents would have a chance to put their views on the proposal.
“We have a wonderful chance to provide a community facility over the next 20 years and if we don’t try now we will end up the big losers.
“We are building narrow streets where you can hardly fit two cars so now is the time to be looking toward the future.”
Mr Donnellan said the Education Department would not hand the land over gratis.
“I will not mislead people by suggesting that it would be given to the community at less than a properly assessed valuation,” he said.
Mr Donnellan said he would not suggest that the land could be acquired when that was not on at this stage.
He agreed, however, that the first stage of a lobby was to ask the government to hold off on sale of the land.
Cr Morland said it was generally agreed that the only way to acquire the land was for the council to buy it.
He said that was another issue in itself.
“We need to look at the possibility of land swaps that can be arranged,” he said.