PERTH, WA: May 17, 1990
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Future in ind Over the next 20 years there would have to be some 30 to 50 Catholic schools developed in WA, the director of Catholic Education, Dr Peter Tannock, said last Sunday.
"Building one, two or three schools a year will require a mighty effort but unless we develop new schools we won't be able to provide for Catholic communities of the future the service of the past," he said. Dr Tannock was speaking at the opening of Ballajura Catholic primary school which he said joined 150 other Catholic schools in WA serving 50,000 pupils with a staff of 3000 teachers. He pointed out that the Catholic school effort had started in the 1840s
when a Catholic school preceded the first government school in this state. He said: "The Church has seen the task of providing schools as central to its mission and work. "This new community of Ballajura is only part of a pattern that has to go on for many years to come." Noting that with our Commonwealth and State government contributions the Catholic schools could not carry on Dr Tannock said the schools nevertheless depended "on people like you to tell government to keep up their support". The parish also had an important contribution to make to a school, he added, urging the Ballaj-
urn community to consolidate its bonds between the school and the parish. "There is no place in the Church in WA for the Catholic school that does not feel it has a direct link to a parish and does not need to support and sustain that link." Catholic schools are provided, he said, not simply because of a tradition but "because all of you believe that Catholic schools are the result of people corning together and bonded by a common faith and the common desire to spread that faith". "I totally believe in the potential of our schools to build communities. This new school at Ballajura is very important for you and for the Church in WA," he said.
Dr Tannock speaking at the opening of the Ballajura Catholic primary school. He is the director of Catholic Education. Sr Margaret O'Sullivan, the school principal, is seated right.
IFIouse that?' Planning Minister Kay Hallahan has given the green light to a Catholic Care for Intellectually Handicapped (CCIH) Riverton house project by upholding an appeal against Canning City Council. The Town Planning Appeal Committee was pressed by a wide cross section of community care organisations, as well as many Catholic bodies and individuals. including bishops in Western Australia, to reverse the Canning Council's decisions. Although the council's Planning department recommended approval, the council's planning sub-committee turned down the proposal twice, notwithstanding a CCM delegation, and the council twice voted in favour of the sub-committe's Opposition. The council's technical objections centred mainly on inadequate front and side boundary setbacks required for "Institutional purposes." The Appeal Committee dismissed this objection
Planning Minister gives the green light to a Catholic Care for Intellectually Handicapped project in Riverton saying that the neighbouring walls in dispute were blank and would not affect privacy. CCIH says that many other local authorities have removed such restrictive clauses so that respite care facilities do not have to come under institution planning requirements. Council Canning
appears to have taken more note of neighbours' claiming objections noise, increased traffic and parking, lessened property values and high water table sewage problems in the area. were Neighbours invited to a Sunday afternoon tea meeting with CCIH families but appear not to have
lessened their opposition to the project. CCIH says it searched for two months and inspected 20 possible houses before the January purchase to make sure the respite care home would be close to main traffic mutes and with sufficient on-site parking to cater for visitors.
Regular septic maintenance, says CCIH, will handle problems that are common to all houses; the CCIH facilities are already approved for a household of 14 persons. CCIH executive officer Maureen Jewell said their aim in appealing against the council decision had been not to over-ride neighbours'
objections but to fmd a balance between the rights of the children and their families and the rights of neighbours. The new facility would not have a negative impact on the neighbours she said. After renovations over the next three months the four bedroom, twobathroom house will
offer short to medium term stays for children whose parents need a spell or time to deal with some other family emergency. CCIH will now own three homes, two others having been purpose built at Greenwood and Koondoola, and also has the use of three other homes.