The cash-strapped council is also considering selling a street to SCEGGS Redlands.
A cash-strapped local council will ask some of Sydney’s wealthiest private schools to pay voluntary rates in a bid to raise $1 million in extra revenue, claiming rising student numbers are piling pressure on parks and public space.
North Sydney Council will ask private schools, including Shore School, within their local government area to pay voluntary rates.The North Sydney local government area is home to six high-fee independent schools, including Shore, Wenona, St Aloysius, SCECGS Redlands, Loreto Kirribilli and Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College. Next year, Reddam House will open a new campus in a heritage-listed Harry Seidler-designed building in McLaren Street.
Speaking at Monday’s meeting, Baker said she was “not proposing to name and shame , I’m proposing the opposite – an honour roll”.The move to seek voluntary rates comes as the council faces a financial crisis amid surging costs from the troubled $122 million North Sydney Olympic Pool redevelopment. In October, the council warned it would need to make “critical decisions” to salvage its finances.
“No one anticipated the major expansion of private schools and universities over the past 20 or 30 years as significant landholders, acquiring large numbers of residential properties in surrounding streets that then become rate exempt.”A spokesperson for Shore said the school had “a long history of making its grounds regularly available for the use of the broader community,” adding that some use was pro bono, while some was on a user-pays basis.
“This is occurring at a time when our population is increasing, the demands on existing public open space for passive and active recreation is at an all-time high,” the minute said. Nearby all-girls school Wenona raised multiple objections to Reddam’s new campus, questioning if another private school was needed in the high-density area. Wenona owns several properties in the streets surrounding its main Walker Street campus, including an $8.7 million house purchased in April.
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