WHEN Planning and Public Spaces Minister Rob Stokes was in Newcastle on Wednesday he spoke repeatedly at a property industry business lunch about the government's support for Newcastle, which had not ended with the light rail and other Revitalising Newcastle features.
A number of projects were in the government's sights, he indicated, including the speculative "Hunter Park" project at Broadmeadow, brought to public attention that day by the Newcastle Herald.
Another government project of keen interest to the region is the Newcastle Education Precinct, unveiled in mid-2018 as a redevelopment of land across Parry Street from the Marketown Shopping Centre, running along National Park Street and including Newcastle High School, fronting Parkway Avenue.
The plans centred on a new primary school, which would ease the enrolment pressures on Newcastle East Public School and other inner suburban schools including Hamilton South.
RELATED READING:'Your Right To Know' on education precinct
Given the apartment boom that has accompanied the light rail - and government policies encouraging higher population densities in the inner city - a new campus on the National Park Street site seemed an obvious step in the right direction.
But further detail after the initial announcement has been hard to obtain.
For our part, the Herald has applied through freedom of information laws, only to be repeatedly rebuffed. Newcastle Labor MP Tim Crakanthorp's parliamentary questions on notice returned minimal results.
To force the issue, Labor secured cross-bench support in the upper house to win a "call for papers" vote that compels the government to release what it had previously refused to disclose: that a new primary school is no longer part of the project "scope", and has not been for almost 18 months.
No wonder the government didn't want to talk about it!
As things stand, we don't know why the plans have been wound back, or whether the elected government or the bureaucracy are driving the changes.
What we do know, is that the Coalition is quick to take the credit for improvements to the new-look inner city (funded by only some of the $1.75 billion from the lease of the port).
It must also, now, take responsibility for the consequences, in this case, the enrolment pressures on the surrounding schools.
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