SDN Bluebell Child Care Centre, Belconnen, will close on 19 December. Photo: James Coleman.
Parents at one of Belconnen’s longest-running childcare centres have launched a petition calling on the ACT Government to intervene to save the service from closure and overhaul planning laws to give not-for-profit providers a fairer go.
The online petition, which has already attracted more than 300 signatures, warns that SDN Bluebell at 44 College Street will shut its doors for the last time on 19 December when its lease expires and the site is sold to a residential developer.
Opened in 1996, Bluebell currently has 95 children enrolled and employs 20 staff, and parents say its loss will be a major blow to Belconnen families and to the ACT’s already stretched childcare sector.
“We’re devastated, we’re grieving,” parent Jenny (last name omitted by request) told Region after families were notified last month.
“It’s been such a critical part of our lives – it’s an extension of our family. It’s been here for 30 years and I know so many people who have sent their kids to this day care, and they’re now grown up.”
“You watch when you tour the rooms, and you see educators interacting with kids, and they’re down on the floor with the kids, they’re holding the children,” fellow parent Tammy Purssell said.
“I went to another centre which had all the same things, but it was the staff and their processes which were the different … and that’s made us stay here.”
Both have said they’re not going to go down without a fight.
Not-for-profit provider SDN Children’s Services, which began as the Sydney Day Nursery Association in 1905, said it had spent years searching for an alternative site, working with an external consultant and the ACT’s childcare regulator CECA – but with no luck.
“SDN Bluebell has been a valued part of the Canberra community for many years, and this decision was not made lightly,” SDN CEO Kay Turner said.
“We are saddened by these circumstances and recognise that this is difficult news for children, families and our highly valued staff.”
Parent Tammy outside the SDN Bluebell childcare centre. Photo: James Coleman.
Parents, however, are pressing the government to consider other potential sites, such as the old Cook Primary School, and revisit previously ruled-out sites, chiefly a former childcare facility in Westfield Belconnen.
The petition also says planning rules should be strengthened to make premises more accessible to not-for-profit providers.
“This includes requiring large developments to provide early learning facilities as part of their lease, reserving government/community sites for not-for-profit services so they can remain competitive against the for-profit sector, and consideration for reduced rates for commercial properties leased to not-for-profits,” it reads.
In the meantime, it calls for a condition to be imposed on the development application for Bluebell’s site so demolition can’t take place until a childcare centre is guaranteed a place in the new development.
Families are not going down without a fight to save SDN Bluebell. Photo: James Coleman.
The central argument in the campaign rests on the existing Crown Lease for the College Street site.
Parents point out that clause 3a requires that the land “be used for the purposes of a child care centre”, and warn that leaving the site vacant after December could trigger a termination clause if it is not used as such for more than a year.
In a letter to ACT Planning Minister Chris Steel, parent Jenny urged the government to engage with the leaseholders – CMK Developments and Sarris Investments – to extend Bluebell’s sublease until 2027.
This, she said, would give SDN time to secure and transition into a new home while avoiding a breach of the lease conditions.
“We are not asking for funding or a bailout,” the letter reads.
“We are simply asking you to engage with the leaseholders and remind them of their obligations under the Crown Lease. By doing so, you could create a win-win situation.”
Education minister Yvette Berry said she’d “have to double-check” the lease conditions, but even if another child care centre is required, it would be “some years” away.
“If that were required as part of that lease arrangement, to provide a new facility, that will take some years, and the current SDN facility will need to close anyway,” Ms Berry told ABC radio.
She added that Cook Primary School was not an option either, due to the fact it’s currently leased to other community organisations.
“It’s already in use for others, so we’d just be displacing other people in those circumstances.”
Bluebell’s buyer hasn’t been named in official documents yet, but the site is soon to be flanked on one side by the new residential Linq Apartments by Evri Group.
The Linq development will comprise twin towers and 151 apartments along Eastern Valley Way, Belconnen. Image: SJB Architects.
But for parents, the issue goes beyond one centre. They argue the looming closure highlights systemic barriers faced by not-for-profit providers competing with commercial operators in Canberra’s tight property market.
“The ACT Government has publicly and consistently recognised the importance of access to quality early childhood education,” Jenny wrote.
“SDN Bluebell is, in Education Minister Yvette Berry’s own words, ‘an excellent service’. It is what all childcare centres should strive to be. So, Minister Steel, please don’t let a model ACT childcare centre close down when you can save it.”
