A PROPOSAL for a new childcare and kindergarten centre in Frankston South has sparked concerns from residents that it would create a “major problem” of traffic congestion and safety.
Frankston Council is considering the $4.5 million plan at 253 Humphries Rd which would see a single storey building built at the corner of Sibyl Ave, catering for 138 children, if approved. Under the plans, the building would be internally partitioned to provide multiple child play areas together with food preparation, laundry, staffing areas, reception, and amenity facilities. The centre would operate from 6:30am to 6:30pm, Monday to Friday with a basement providing 34 parking spaces.
The plans stated the “new development responds to established and preferred streetscape and neighbourhood character and built form in terms of building height, scale, siting, and landscape setting”. It would also provide “a low scale development, setback from all boundaries and designed to blend into the single storey dwelling stock throughout the precinct”. The developer behind the project is Beachwood Early Learning, which recently opened an early learning centre and kindergarten just a few doors down at 105 Humphries Rd after it won council approval in 2018.
The proposal comes after a separate development saw the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) issue a planning permit for an early childhood education and care service at 137 Overport Rd, Frankston South, in 2022 after being rejected by Frankston Council due to congestion and amenity concerns. In a third matter, VCAT rejected Frankston Council’s decision to approve a planning permit for a childcare centre at 21 Barmah Court, Frankston South, in 2019 because of traffic concerns.
The latest proposal at 253 Humphries Rd has prompted an outcry from residents who fear it would impact their amenity and cause traffic and parking chaos. Derinya Primary School is located about 2.4km north of the proposed site while Paratea Preschool and Walkers Road Preschool are also nearby.
Frankston Residents and Ratepayers Association president Darrel Taylor, a former Frankston mayor, said school drop-offs in the area were already “manic” and in Humphries Rd, “there’s no actual lane or verge where you can park a car safely on the road”. “Kindergartens and childcare centres in those real suburban areas are in issue especially traffic wise and accessibility – it does cause an issue, and I really do understand why the residents in that area are up in arms about it,” he said. “If Frankston Council took a proactive approach they would address the planning scheme around childcare centres, especially given the clear intent from federal and state governments to increase accessibility to childcare.”
Taylor also reiterated that while residents weren’t opposed to childcare centres, “they’re going in the wrong locations, and it just creates stress and issues for local people” when “no common sense has been applied”.
Frankston Council has been contacted for comment.
First published in the Frankston Times – 10 December 2024
