By Derek Schlennstedt
For many residents in Belgrave South and the surrounding suburbs, the Belgrave Community House is a second home.
Now, that home is at risk of being demolished.
In early June, Minister for Education, James Merlino, announced that Belgrave South Primary School would receive $200,000 to build a new, modern outdoor classroom and community centre.
The ‘dilapidated’ and ‘past its use-by date’ community house building, located on school land, and owned by the Department of Education will be removed as part of the upgrade.
Lyn Taylor, Centre Manager at the Community House said that although the announcement confirmed that a new building would replace the current one, it would only be able to be used intermittently.
“What they are building is an education centre for the school – not on this footprint,” said Ms Taylor
“The department is saying community groups can use it after hours, but it would not be a home.”
The current Community House is shared with the Belgrave South Scouts, who use it for meetings and to store their extensive equipment.
Ms Taylor, invited the ‘Mail’ for a tour where it was clear the building required some maintenance work.That maintenance cost is believed to be one of the reasons for its demolition, and Ms Taylor said she believed that the building was surplus to the school’s needs.
A Department of Education and Training spokesperson said that ‘the building would require significant investment to continue to be used in the future,’ and that, ‘Belgrave South Community House and the local council have advised that they will not provide funds for this purpose’.
“The condition of the ageing building has been deteriorating for some time and is in very poor condition,” a Department of Education and Training spokesperson said.
“Despite it being on school grounds, it is not a school facility and is not used or needed by the school.”
Though, Ms Taylor confirmed that the school uses the building to store props for productions.
For over 35 years the building has serviced the community’s needs, and Ms Taylor said that they were unsure whether it would continue to do that.
The loss of the building will also mean the loss of the occasional care program.
“At this stage there is nowhere for occasional care to go; we don’t have the facilities if we lost this building,” said Ms Taylor
“It’s not the type of child care that people book in to go to work, it’s for families who have no extended family in the area and who just need a break from it.”
“It’s for that section of the community who don’t have anything else and who can’t afford long day care.”
Details about the size of the new building are scarce.
This has hampered efforts by Ms Taylor and the Scouts to determine whether current programs would remain.
“It’s hard not knowing ourselves whether the services are still going to be in the community, or if they are going to disappear altogether,” Ms Taylor said.
“All I can say is that we intend for the services to continue with the exception of occasional care because there is nowhere for that to go if we lose this building.”
Opposition Member for Monbulk, John Schurink, said he was keen to see the building refurbished rather than demolished.
“I’m really advocating for the building to remain … the structure of the building is just fine and some refurbishment work would bring it well up to standard,” Mr Schurink said.
“We need to ensure the good work that Lyn does continues, particularly the occasional child care, because there’s very little of that in the hills.”
