the threat

The Victorian Department of Education and Training plan to sell off 1.5 hectares of land from the Oakleigh South Primary School grounds in Riley Street. If the local council don't buy the land it will be sold to housing developers.

The site was previously the junior campus of the Oakleigh South Secondary School grounds, and before that, Huntingdale High School. The land has been a public asset for 44 years.

The formula the Education Department use for allocating space provides a lower ratio of land per child for primary students than for secondary students. So they maintain that 1.5 hectares of the site is surplus to the school's needs and will be sold.

The Oakleigh South area is already lacking in publicly accessible green space. A further loss would be a tragedy for the many people who currently use the Riley Street area for recreation and sport - not to mention future generations.

The Education Department have already made moves to sell off the site in Beryl Street where Oakleigh South Primary used to be located. A small portion of that land is to be sold to the Metropolitan Golf Club with the remainder to be sold to the Urban and Regional Land Corporation for housing development.

To cover 1.5 hectares of open space in Riley Street with high density housing would degrade our local environment even further.

And Melbourne as a whole is the poorer for any additional loss of green space in our inner suburban areas. Ironically the Bracks government itself is promoting policies that point to the need to “Improve the quality and distribution of local open space and ensure long-term protection of public open space” in metropolitan Melbourne. We want them to put their policies into practice.