‘Blindsided' Perth playgroups facing eviction after a decade
Casa Mia Montessori Playgroup on Hudson Street discovered late last week that its premises will be considered for potential disposal in council documents ahead of the July 22 council meeting.
The group found out only after Maylands MLA and former Bayswater councillor Dan Bull noticed the item in agenda briefing notes and contacted to let them know.
On Monday, Casa Mia Montessori playgroup president Breanne Rasmussen said they still had not been officially told about the potential disposal of the land by the City of Bayswater.
'That's the kicker,' she said.
At the City's agenda briefing on Tuesday night Ms Rasmussen said CEO Jeremy Edwards had contacted her during the day to clarify the intention for the site.
Mr Edwards said the city planned to consider a 'part-disposal' of the site, which would be for only the carpark rather than the whole site. Bayswater Playgroup operates on the other side of the building, with a separate playroom and playground. Credit: Facebook
The 3256sqm property is one of several across the city identified for potential sale under Bayswater's land asset disposal strategy.
It is shared with Bayswater Playgroup, which runs its own program from the other half of the building and have a combined total of 100 families using their services.
The facility was built in 1975 as a pre-primary school and is currently leased to the playgroups under a peppercorn lease until 2027, with the city responsible for all building upkeep.
A council report said the site was underutilised and incurred ongoing maintenance costs without delivering a financial return.
It said the site could be sold 'as is' for redevelopment, with interest already received from developers — including those interested in turning it into a childcare centre.
'While this arrangement provides community benefit, the overall utilisation remains limited in comparison to the broader potential of the site,' the report said.
Ms Rasmussen rejected claims the facility was underused, saying the report misrepresented the scale and importance of the playgroup's operations.
'We run four sessions a week, and we've been hired out every weekend since the rainy season started,' she said.
'We currently support 57 families. People come from as far as Balga, Ascot and South Guildford because there just aren't many community playgroups left, especially not Montessori-based ones.'
Ms Rasmussen said having two playgroups in the one centre gave families choice of session style and pricing, making it an extremely accessible community playgroup.
Between the two playgroups, the centre operates almost every weekday morning. It is also a popular venue for children's birthday parties, with 72 per cent of weekend days booked on average.
'We've been hired out every weekend since it started getting rainy. So usually from about March until November, we're hired out every weekend, both days,' Ms Rasmussen said.
The city report acknowledged that no suitable alternative location had been identified for the playgroups if the land was sold. Casa Mia provides playgroup options for two hours, four times a week. Credit: Casa Mia
The playgroups now fear being left with nowhere to go in 2027 or even sooner, depending on the council's decision next week.
'We're not at negotiations yet, but that's something we're definitely open to. We just like to be involved in the conversation,' Ms Rasmussen said.
'This is more than a building,'
Two petitions on behalf of both playgroups has started online, where parents and caretakers have flooded the comments to share their love for the playgroups and the devastating loss it would be to the community.
'We really enjoyed coming to both the Casa Mia and Bayswater playgroups. My children loved it and it was a great space to connect with other local mums, dads, and caregivers. It would be a big loss to the community to lose this space,' one said.
'It would be detrimental to the children if it closed,' another added.
'We would be so sad if you close it. Please keep the place for our children where they grow and learn together.'
A City of Bayswater spokesperson said they were unable to comment until a decision is made at the July 22 council meeting.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AU Financial Review
6 hours ago
- AU Financial Review
An onsen and a tea house: What to expect from this new Melbourne tower
Melbourne-based developer Holder East is launching a new hotel and residential project in Southbank, drawing design inspiration from Japanese wellness rituals by offering its own 'onsen' and private tea house. Holder East hopes to break ground in February for the 48-storey tower at 526 Clarendon Street with the name Sento – a word that means bathhouse in Japanese. It will have 140 apartments ranging from one, two and three bedrooms and 10 penthouses.
West Australian
7 hours ago
- West Australian
Paladin Energy shares lose 11pc as Langer Heinrich guidance misses expectations
Shares in the most shorted stock on the Australian Securities Exchange have plunged after output targets at its African uranium mine disappointed again. Perth-based Paladin Energy lost 11.3 per cent of its value on Wednesday despite posting a 33 per cent rise in quarterly production from its Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia. Paladin cranked out 993,843 pounds of triuranium octoxide — a uranium compound — compared with 745,484lb during the prior quarter. The average realised price of Langer Heinrich's radioactive product dropped $US69.9/lb to $US55.6/lb, while production costs declined from $US40.60/lb to $US37.50/lb. Output forecasts for the current financial year caused investors to flee. Production for the financial year is expected to sit between 4 million and 4.4 million pounds of U3O8 with costs between $US44/lb and $US48/lb. Costs were higher and output lower than what analysts had pencilled in. Paladin's management pinned the result on higher-than-expected mining and blasting expenses plus grade variability in its stockpiled ore. The poor result was good news for Paladin's legion of short sellers, who effectively profit when the company's share price tanks. The portion of Paladin's stock controlled by short sellers is 16.8 per cent, according to Australian Securities and Investments Commission data. It became the most shorted stock on the ASX last month, taking the unwanted mantle from fellow uranium miner Boss Energy. Paladin's shares are down 8.1 per cent so far this year and 39.8 per cent compared to 12 months ago. Paladin is currently facing two class action lawsuits related to production guidance provided last year. It is alleged the company contravened continuous disclosure rules and had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct. Paladin told the ASX in June last year Langer Heinrich would pump out 4mlb to 4.5mlb of its uranium compound for the 2025 financial year. Quarterly production was well below expectations in October, sparking a 15 per cent share price collapse.
Sydney Morning Herald
10 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Australian energy giant ditches US plant as Trump attacks green power
Woodside, the largest Australian oil and gas company, has abandoned plans to build a lower-carbon fuels plant in the United States as energy users and producers reel from Donald Trump's decision to slash tax breaks for green technologies. The Perth-based energy giant told investors on Wednesday it would take a $US140 million ($214 million) profit hit after deciding to walk away from the H2OK liquid hydrogen project it had been planning in Oklahoma, blaming the rising cost of making cleaner hydrogen and weaker-than-expected customer demand. 'We have made the decision to exit the H2OK project, demonstrating our disciplined approach to portfolio management,' Woodside chief executive Meg O'Neill said on Wednesday. Woodside, a producer of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG), is pursuing the development of lower-carbon hydrogen as part of its climate transition strategy. Because hydrogen emits only water vapour when burned, it is considered by many to be a promising climate-friendly energy source that could eventually substitute fossil fuels and help clean up heavy-polluting industries, as long as it is made using low- or zero-carbon energy sources. Woodside's H2OK would have used an electrolyser, powered by the electricity grid, to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. However, Woodside announced it was pausing the H2OK project in January, shortly after Donald Trump's return to the White House. It also scrapped a separate plan to build a concentrated solar thermal energy facility in California through a partnership with Heliogen, a company backed by billionaire Bill Gates. While not directly attributing those decisions to Trump's energy agenda, Woodside at the time said it needed to consider the implications of the administration's pledge to dismantle support for US clean energy investments, including halting the disbursement of funds from the $567 billion Inflation Reduction Act, which had been offering generous tax breaks for renewable developers. This month, Trump secured the passage of a giant tax and domestic policy bill through Congress, which will make it cheaper and easier for companies to drill and produce fossil fuels, while cutting funding for electric cars and wind and solar farms. Woodside remains committed to one clean energy investment in the US, the Beaumont lower-carbon ammonia project in Texas. The project was 95 per cent completed as of June 30, the company said.
