Perth Voice Interactive

THE Cook government has announced it will put $12 million into Highgate Primary School to ease pressure on its crowded classrooms, but negotiations over a new school for East Perth have become bogged down in another tiff between Labor and lord mayor Basil Zempilas.

Education minister Tony Buti announced the Highgate extensions this week, saying it would create six classrooms for students and additional toilets in a two-storey modular classroom. It will be connected to the school’s existing two-storey building.

The Education Department has also signed an agreement with Vincent council to allow students to access nearby Birdwood Square for exclusive play during school hours, while school staff may get allocated council parking bays so some at Highgate can be repurposed into green space.

“Highgate Primary School is a great school, with fantastic students, teachers and staff, that is in demand,” Mr Buti said.

“The Department of Education has worked very hard with the school community to produce an innovative solution to the growing enrolments, while we build the new inner city primary school planned for East Perth.”

But that process has been bogged down by a dispute over council-owned land behind the WACA that’s been flagged for the school.

Mr Zempilas has insisted he wants the Cook government to pay for the land up-front, citing correspondence 12 months ago that he says show they offered to buy it from the City. 

But Mr Buti says that’s not the case, and while the wording in the correspondence was “unclear”, he thought he’d cleared up with Mr Zempilas that the government wanted the land gratis.

The land is the Queens Garden carpark in Nelson Crescent, which earns the City around $1.5 million each year in parking revenue.

The City says the state government wants about two-thirds of the site for the school, which would need approval from Parliament to change an Act introduced for the 1962 Commonwealth Games. The Chevron Hilton Hotel Agreement Act 1960 requires the City to provide parking on the site. 

The Cook government has said it would happily repeal the legislation – if the City gives up the site, saying a new primary school would provide it with enormous benefits.

Perth MLA John Carey said the East Perth school would be the biggest investment in a primary school in the state’s history.

“Our community has advocated strongly for enhanced education facilities, as we see continued growth and more families choosing to live in the inner-city area,” Mr Carey said. 

“As our city evolves, the State Government has made significant investments to schools across the inner-city including Bob Hawke College and Mount Lawley Senior High School.”

by STEVE GRANT