Baillieu slams inaction

By Casey Neill
STATE Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu slammed State Government inaction on the former Ferntree Gully Secondary College site, in a visit to the school last week.
Mr Baillieu said the community asset had been “left to rot”.
“It’s an incredible waste that such a valuable site would just be allowed to deteriorate like this,” he said.
“You wonder if the buildings do have any value.”
Mr Baillieu urged the State Government to reveal its plans for the school.
“The government has got to give a clear indication as soon as possible what they intend for this site.”
“I’d be desperately disappointed if I was a member of this community.”
The Dorset Road college was closed at the end of 2006.
Mr Baillieu said a much-needed eastern region autism-specific secondary school was just one option for the former high school.
“Those needs have been well established in the government’s own reports on specialist facilities,” he said.
“And here’s a site and a facility staring everybody in the face.”
“But there’s so many uses that you can think of.”
Mr Baillieu questioned government spending required to maintain the site.
“We’ve now moved into a situation where money is going to be incredibly tight, and yet this government has missed an opportunity to do something with this site,” he said.
The State Government would not reveal the land’s value or the condition of the buildings, but confirmed it had made no decision to sell the site.
A government spokesman said the Liberal Party and Mr Baillieu had a “shameful record of forcing hundreds of schools to shut, selling them for personal gain and sacking thousands of teachers from their jobs.”
He said the Brumby Government continued to invest in education, highlighting a $1.9 billion program rebuilding, renovating or extending every Victorian school – “the biggest schools’ capital works in Victoria’s history”.