A PRIMARY school proposed for Armstrong Creek is still yet to be built, and the state opposition have accused Labor Member for Western Victoria Gayle Tierney of breaking a promise.<\/p>\n
As reported in this newspaper in May 2016, Ms Tierney announced funding for the Armstrong Creek West Primary School, to be built in Unity Drive, was part of $54 million for schools in the 2016\/7 budget and the school would be open in about 18 months.<\/p>\n
According to the Victorian School Building Authority\u2019s website, a project timeline for the school in the Armstrong Mt Duneed estate is \u201cto be determined\u201d, and the project is in the \u201cland acquisition\u201d phase.<\/p>\n
Liberal MPs Andrew Katos and Tim Smith visited the undeveloped site last week, and said even if construction began today, the school would not open for at least 13 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spoke to the developers last week, and the land has not even been acquired,\u201d Mr Katos said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo-one\u2019s going to nitpick over a month or two of the school being built, but there\u2019s nothing happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a clear breach of the Labor Party\u2019s commitment to build a school for the Armstrong Creek community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Smith said 50 new schools needed to be built across Victoria by 2021, and about 300 by the mid-2030s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people get told there\u2019s going to be a school and there\u2019s no school\u2026 and this sort of backlog of infrastructure takes place, you wonder why people are pretty cynical about Daniel Andrews and the Labor Party\u2019s view about decentralisation and planning for future growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, Ms Tierney said she had been working closely with Minister for Education James Merlino \u201cto make sure we get the new school Armstrong Creek deserves\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike Andrew Katos, who hasn\u2019t achieved anything in three years, I won\u2019t stop advocating for the Armstrong Creek community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A PRIMARY school proposed for Armstrong Creek is still yet to be built, and the state opposition have accused Labor Member for Western Victoria Gayle Tierney of breaking a promise. As reported in this newspaper in May 2016, Ms Tierney announced funding for the Armstrong Creek West Primary School, to be built in Unity Drive, […]<\/p>\n