Plans to replace demountable classrooms at Old Bar Public School with a permanent building on the school grounds were approved at a meeting of the Hunter and Central Coast Joint Planning Panel in Taree on May 10, 2018.
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The panel, which included MidCoast Council counsellors David Keegan and Peter Epov, approved the development application submitted by the NSW Department of Education to MidCoast Council, originally submitted in September 2017.
The plans are to replace seven demountable buildings that are currently on the school grounds with a new two-storey building which will be erected where the existing basketball court sits.
The new development will only provide replacement classrooms and does not allow for an increase in capacity of students at the school.
“The proposal will replace existing demountable classrooms and will provide improved facilities for students and social benefits for the local community,” The Planning Panel’s Determination and Statement of Reasons report said.
The DA was approved subject to an amendment that “within three months of occupation of the new building … [the seven demountable buildings] are to be removed from the school site, with the area to be made good and landscaped within six weeks of the removal”.
Two people addressed the panel at the meeting, one being a spokesperson for the applicant, and the other Old Bar resident Virginia Marsden, who voiced her concerns and objection to the development.
No written submissions were received during public exhibition.
The new development will only provide replacement classrooms and does not allow for an increase in capacity of students at the school.