STIRLING city council will continue to charge schools for using council reserves, despite a strong push from some councillors for the fee to be waived.
Following an indexed three per cent increase, schools will be charged $65 for three hours or more and $32.50 for up to three hours.
Cr David Michael says the charge raised just $8000 last year: “Schools are community organisations, not customers,” he says.
“We provide free access for junior sports clubs, so why not schools?”
Cr Keith Sargent says granting schools free access will see the council spend more on maintenance.
“If you charge someone full price for a Mars Bar, people only tend to buy around three a month,” he said, bringing to bear his expertise as a supermarket worker.
“Schools are community organisations, not customers,”
“But if you put them on special they buy a box, and if they are free they take as much as they can get.
“Having a nominal fee prevents overuse and abuse of our already highly used reserves.”
In the 2013/14 financial year, 35 schools booked reserves in Stirling: 29 were located within the municipality and six outside.
Officers reported most of the 554 bookings in 2013/14 were for extra-curricular sports programs, including athletics carnivals, lapathons and football matches.
“With the state government increasingly removing and/or reducing the size of schools it is likely that demands on public open space for school activities, including both carnivals and physical activity lessons, will increase in the future,” staffers noted.
Cr David Boothman says the fee is reasonable and will cost schools just 21 cents per student, assuming 300 kids for a full day.
“Our budget for reserve maintenance is $21.5 million, so I think this nominal fee is acceptable,” he told colleagues.
“Only two schools have complained and the fee has been in place for a while.”
Council approved the updated charge, which includes one free use of a reserve for each school.
by STEPHEN POLLOCK
Perth Voice Interactive 
Leave a comment