Right build, wrong place: Morley Drive ECEC plans knocked back by assessment panel

Plans for a $2.1 million, 92 place early childhood education and care (ECEC) service in the Perth suburb of Morley have been knocked back by State planners who said they were supportive of the need for more ECEC spaces, but that the building “just wasn’t in the right spot.” 

Metro Inner-North Joint Development Assessment Panel members voted to refuse the plans from landowner Harper Investment WA Pty Ltd to build the centre at 589-591 Morley Drive, demolishing two single storey buildings already on site. 

The single storey homes are in keeping with the residential location of the proposed build, and placing an ECEC service into a space which is predominantly occupied by single homes would not be in keeping with the area. 

East Victoria Park resident, and mother of three, Stacey Bruce was keen to see the panel approve the plans, saying the Bayswater area was desperate for high quality ECEC options. 

“Lower quality facilities dominate our local areas that are typically old converted residential houses with low place numbers,” she said, describing the experience of dropping children off to such a place as “absolutely gut-wrenching.”

Ms Bruce is on waiting lists for two of her children, and was left without care options when a community based ECEC service run by the Uniting Church closed, something she said was “devastating” to enrolled families. 

Panelists were unmoved, saying the development, a large two storey building with roof height which does not comply with the building height permitted under the residential zone would dominate the space. City officer Gemma Basley said allowing the build would result in “ad hoc and inconsistent” development. 

To read local coverage of this story please see here. Image credit: Brown Falconer