Seven years after the Flynn community lost a furious battle to keep its government primary school open, the war is back on with residents outraged the ACT government has approved the building of a private school a kilometre away.
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The former Flynn Primary School Parents and Citizens Association has maintained its membership saying it had never given up the fight to reopen the school and the latest census figures issued by the government on Tuesday vindicated its arguments in 2006 that the school population would rebound.
Association president Roger Nicholl said: ''All arguments for blocking a proposed primary school at Flynn have now evaporated with the revelation of the government's secret decision to open a third primary school in the neighbouring suburb of Charnwood.''
ACT Education Minister Joy Burch also had to justify her decision to allow Brindabella Christian School to open a Belconnen campus after her colleague and predecessor Andrew Barr's rejection of an application by Emmaus Christian School for a Belconnen campus in 2008 because it ''could undermine the viability of existing schools''.
The government came under attack this week from both the Australian Education Union and Save Our Schools lobby for approving three new private schools in the ACT without public notification.
Brindabella Christian College will establish another campus at the old Charnwood High School, while the Seventh Day Adventist-run Canberra Christian College will build in the new suburb of Wright and the At Taqwa Islamic School has approval for a Gungahlin campus.
Ms Burch said the latest ACT school census showed North Belconnen enrolments had grown by 135 students this year.
But Save Our Schools campaigner Trevor Cobbold said the situation had become farcical with two government decisions making conflicting assessments of capacity and demand in the region.
''If there is now such new growth in projected enrolments in the region to warrant a new school, as Ms Burch asserts, the simple solution would be to reopen Flynn school. Instead, the government has closed a government school in the region only to open a new private school,'' Mr Cobbold said.
Ms Burch said Brindabella was already operating an early childhood centre at Charnwood, from which the new campus would draw its students.
A spokesman said ''Brindabella Christian College enrolments at a Charnwood campus were unlikely to be from other schools in the Belconnen area, either government or non-government. Rather, many could be an internal transfer of students from the BCC campus in Lyneham''.
Mr Nicholl said: ''It is very clear from the figures quoted by the government that it closed at least one school too many in North Belconnen, which is exactly what our research back in 2006 and since then has been showing.
''The government now has a moral obligation to … consider the longstanding proposal for a school at the former Flynn Primary.''
Australian Education Union ACT secretary Glenn Fowler said the approval process needed to be examined thoroughly.
He was also at pains to correct media reports the union opposed approval for At Taqwa Islamic School, saying its main concern had been ''viability of existing west Belconnen schools to cope with a new school in the area.''
