Woodend Primary School Governing Council would  like to inform school community  members of  a Marion Council development proposal for the Young Street /Hughes Court Reserve, pictured above.

If you are a close neighbour to the school,  Corey Wingard may have already drawn your attention to this, earlier this year.

The Marion Council is proposing to develop the Young Street /Hughes Court Reserve, to help address the significant parking issues around the school. The proposal at this stage includes using about 21% of the reserve for “kiss and go” area and carparking. The development would create improvements to a large part of the reserve. The proposal includes significant tree and shrub planting, a path through the reserve and rock lined swales designed to collect carpark stormwater runoff.

Our school has now grown to around 650 students and we are aiming to keep that as our upper limit. Over the past 10 years we have worked with Marion Council to seek solutions to the growing congestion our school community has created in the neighbourhood. Our Governing Council is therefore very pleased that Marion Council is proposing to take this positive step towards addressing the problem.

If you would like to view the current concept design, it is on our school notice board, at the school office entrance.

We would love to hear your views about this proposal so that we might  continue working with the Marion Council to refine it. If you are interested in helping  to drive this idea to fruition, please contact Kerri in the school office and she will put you in touch with Governing Councillor, Kym Sard  or  Governing Council  Chairperson Karen Gunton.

PS:  We remind parents that the carparks at WPS and at  Woodend Children’s Centres are for staff and visitor parking only.  We know that most people know that this applies as there are  barely enough parks for staff.  Because of increased numbers, often some WPS staff have to use  the WCC staff carpark.  We know that parking  has been an increasing problem in Bathbank Cres and we ask WPS parents to please respect the request to not park intuit carpark.

If this current Marion Council proposal goes ahead we envisage things improving in Bathbank Cres. We will seek to create a walkway along the school’s southern boundary between  Bathbank and Young Street to support  that arrangement.