Bigger doesn’t mean better for a group of Staughton Vale residents, who have won their campaign to downsize plans for a school in their rural town.
Bacchus Marsh Grammar unveiled a 15-year vision to build a 1300-student campus near Anakie at Staughton Vale in June.
In August, the school lodged a planning application for the $6 million first stage of its development – agricultural and outdoor learning spaces for up to 200 students at the 81-hectare site – with the Greater Geelong council.
But this application was rejected at a panel hearing last Thursday after fierce opposition from the Staughton Vale Action Group.
For Mark Trengove, of Staughton Vale Action Group, it was a big victory for the small community.
“We’ve got them to scale back the school’s total capacity by about 100 students so far,” he said.
“One building in particular, which was going to be a day observations centre, did not fit with the rural landscape – it was far too big and would have been seen from a few kilometres away. That building will not go ahead.”
Mr Trengove said residents were unaware of the full scale of the development until they read about the plans in the newspaper.
“The Anakie and Staughton Vale community were initially supportive of Bacchus Marsh Grammar’s proposed rural and environmental campus for 60 to 200 students, as it seemed like a good fit for the area,” he said.
“However, since the community was alerted to the full picture … there has been a great deal of anger.”
Bacchus Marsh College called a meeting with residents in October in response to “the growing community disquiet,” Mr Trengove said.
“More than 40 angry locals made it abundantly clear that a 1300-student campus was not in keeping with the site’s rural farming zone and just not appropriate,” he said.
“The community has argued, it would be wiser to establish any new stand-alone campus within the population it intends to service, not more than half an hour away in a poorly serviced rural area.”
Criticism ‘didn’t reflect vision’
Bacchus Marsh Grammar principal Andrew Neal said the school was disappointed that it would not be able to develop the site to the extent planned.
“We were surprised with some of the comments made that, we felt, didn’t accurately reflect the vision that we had for the site,” he said.
“That said, we are pleased with the process that Geelong council carried out and we accept the permit that has been issued. We are eager to commence construction in 2016 and early 2017.”
