AN UNPOPULAR decision to scrap around $300,000 in funding allocated for environmental projects at local schools was met with both opposition and praise at a special meeting of Council on December 20.
At Council’s December 11 meeting, it was resolved to spend the remaining $2.520 million raised through an environmental and stormwater levy on the maintenance of the Hawkesbury’s 21 gross pollutant traps over an estimated 26-year period as well as operate Council’s mechanical street sweeper and a number of other environmental initiatives.
But funding the gross pollutant traps meant ditching an idea to fund environmental programs within 28 local primary schools, a resolution that Councillor Christine Paine said left many schools “gobsmacked”.
Cr Paine said schools such as Comleroy Road Public School, who under the proposal would have received around $8900, had already planned their programs.
Staff at Hobartville Public School had already put a proposal together and were going to apply for some of the money.
In May 2007, Council issued a press release announcing $300,000 had been allocated for environmental education initiatives in all public and independent primary schools in the Hawkesbury Local Government Area.
While Bligh Park Public School, Glossodia Public School and Long Neck Lagoon Environment Centre did receive funding totalling $34,700 for trial projects, other schools in the area will now miss out.
But Mayor Bart Bassett told the Gazette that the money “hadn’t been promised to those schools”. “The schools didn’t know of a dollar value... it was a general statement made some years ago,” Mayor Bassett said.
“I don’t think our ratepayers expect to fund this... State education is funded by taxes and I don’t think ratepayers expect to pay for their children’s education in their rates as well. It should be funded as part of the curriculum. There was never any dollar figure as far as I’m aware.”
Cr Paine said the special rate variation, which was for a five-year period and comm-enced in the 2003/2004 financial year, was “sold” to the community on the basis that some of the money was supposed to come back to the community in an education program.
“But that’s not happening,” Cr Paine said.
Cr Paine did put in a recission motion, but withdrew it before a special meeting was held on Thursday, December 20. Councillors Ted Books,Trevor Devine and Dianne Finch put their own recission motion in, which was heard and voted on that Thursday night.
Cr Finch said in eight years of being on Council she had never put her name to a recission motion, but had done so because she had been contacted by schools who were concerned about the December 11 resolution.
The recission motion was met with support from Comleroy Road Public School student Amy Barry, who urged Council to reconsider its decision, while the other two speakers to address Council, Marie Warby and Kim Ford, were in favour of the December 11 resolution.
“I’m certainly in favour of all schools in the Hawkesbury taking part in environmental education, but I don’t believe ratepayers should continue to foot the bill for environmental education,” Ms Warby said.
Councillors Finch, Paine, Books, Devine, Porter, Wearne and Mayor Bassett were present at the December 20 meeting, and only Cr Paine voted in favour of the recission motion.
As a result the motion was lost and the December 11 resolution to spend the $2.520 million on the upkeep of gross pollutant traps, the mechanical street sweeper, integrated weed control funds, road reserve management planning and community monitoring of water quality was upheld. Mayor Bassett said schools that developed plans for environmental projects would still be able to apply for available grant funding from Council.