The following residents of the ACT draw the attention of the Assembly to the condition, and need for replacement, of the Monash Primary School oval.
The education directorate has agreed with the Monash School Board that the oval does needs replacing. They however have not committed funding or a time frame for funding to replace it. The oval was established well over a decade ago and despite several thousands of dollars a year from our small public-school budget being spent on upkeep, it is in dire need of replacing. These types of ovals we understand should be replaced every 10 years, to a cost of between $250,000-500,000. You can see that this is beyond what our school can afford.
Lighting for after school hours use was not also provided during initial construction. This, and due to the poor surface quality, the school has been unable to rent the space for income to go towards upkeep or replacement, nor to give the community a place for recreation and sport within our local area.
Signs of the oval needing replacement:
1. The underlay is made of small plastic beads or fragments which end up in children's shoes and clothing on a daily basis.
2. This loss from the subsurface is making the turf uneven and over 350 local parents are concerned it may become unsafe. Trips on the surface cause grazes to skin. The beads get into eyes that can need to be flushed with water. When kids run on it you can see the plastic beads get airborne during the vibration and flicking of feet.
3. These plastic bead like objects also wash down into school grounds and down drains with every rain fall, adding plastic pollution to our waterways, and making considerable work for our building services officers (BSOs) to clean up.
4. Due to inadequate drainage under the oval, when it rains the water washes off the area downhill and washes away the tanbark from our playgrounds, adding further costs to the school and the directorate to replace it. Another cost is the time to the BSOs who must clear the drains of muddy tanbark after every rainfall. which recently has been nearly every week. After a particularly heavy rain it took two BSOs 3 days to clean up.
5. Considering where the water goes; into the lovely upgraded wet land area in north west Tuggeranong Lake; it is sad to think how much plastic is entering the ecosystem.
Your petitioners, therefore, request the Assembly to call upon the Government to:
1. Provide priority funding for the replacement of the Monash Primary School oval space.
2. To include lighting infrastructure so that the school may be able to obtain some income from renting that area to the local community for sports and recreation. This is with the aim that we may be able to meet the upkeep or replacement in future, as much as possible with minimal dependence on the directorate.
3. Ensure that adequate drainage is included to avoid damage to remaining school infrastructure.