Plans for school in booming suburb ditched, despite $20 million already spent
The former Coalition government announced plans to build a second public school in Westmead in 2018. But visions for the school regularly shifted at the hands of School Infrastructure NSW, and was referred to as a 'problem site' at a recent Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry.
After questions from the Herald about an additional $953,000 for 'Westmead school projects' in this year's budget, the state government this week confirmed it had abandoned trying to find a location for the school.
Instead, it will spend that money upgrading and expanding existing primary schools at Westmead and nearby Rydalmere, Rydalmere East and Ermington West.
The government is also investigating sites for new high schools in Westmead and Rydalmere, said Acting Education Minister Courtney Houssos.
'The Minns Labor government is drawing a line under two grossly flawed proposals put forward by the former Liberal-National government that they announced without adequate planning or due diligence, with potentially disastrous results,' she said in a statement, describing the plans as 'nothing more than a media announcement' with 'no plan to ever deliver'.
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'We know that there will be future population growth in these areas, and we are committed to building new schools to meet the long-term needs of local families with site selection work well under way.'
Numbers from this year's budget show an estimated $20,485,000 has been spent on the project since its inception, a figure which includes some land acquisition.
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