Councillors in Bunbury last night voted to promote tourism over education by supporting the development of a Hotel immediately opposite Bunbury Senior High School.
Local residents objecting to the proposal claim that the City is paying lipservice to Liveable Neighbourhoods, while focussing on their Bunbury Vision concept, which will see education overshadowed by tourism in the prime back beach location.
At least 14 residents have voiced objections to the proposal, saying it contradicts both the letter and the spirit of Liveable Neighbourhoods to bring together such divergent uses in the one locality.
The City on the other hand focussed on the potential of the locality for tourism and the need for short stay accommodation in Bunbury, and appear to have ignored the potential adverse impacts of a Hotel in such close proximity to a school.
In recognising the potential of mixed use localities in urban planning, the Liveable Neighbourhoods policy envisages compatible uses which can share local amenities such as parking, and give the example of schools and recreational facilities or libraries being located together.
But the location of a hotel alongside a school appears to contract other planning objectives such as safe pedestrian access to and from schools, to enable children to walk to school, and traffic management. Liveable Neighbourhoods also emphasises residential use as a suitable interface to schools, and recommends that change of use not occur at road boundaries.
The land chosen for the Hotel backs onto Upper Espanade, which runs parallel to the back beach and is a feeder road to Bunbury Senior High School. The Liveable Neighbourhoods concept emphasises the need for special treatment of feeder roads to schools, including slowing traffic, and ensuring parking design that facilitates safe pedestrian access.
Residents have also voiced concern that such incompatible mixing of services might also lead to a drop in school enrollments due to parental safety concerns, and the eventual targeting of the School premises itself for further tourist development.
The proposal to sell Lot 66 Ocean Drive for the development of a Hotel was passed by Council with only Councillor Steck voting against the proposal.