Child care centre

RECENTLY I was able to look at the plans for a new child care centre on Bollen Road, Mt Barker (The Courier, June 29).

We now know that it will have only 20 spaces for parking on-site – including 16 spaces for parent cars and four for staff.

The developers propose that up to 97 children, four years and under, be cared for at this new center.

That’s a lot for such a small site.

The management is obliged to adhere to the State child care legislation and having 97 kids on site will require, by law, more than four staff employed at this centre.

Thus there will be insufficient car spaces for staff employed there or parents dropping off or picking up children. Staff and parents will park along memorial drive and on the grass nature strip along Bollen Road.

More importantly there is high potential for collisions when parents and staff turn right or left from Memorial Drive, into Bollen Road.

There are two big mature red gums blocking the ability of drivers exiting Memorial drive, to see traffic coming along Bollen Road.

In fact cars often move a metre onto Bollen Road in order to see what’s coming.

Car crashes are always dangerous and often cause injuries.

Collisions involving small children and parents, are even more upsetting.

So what solutions are there to this dangerous intersection?

Remove the trees?

This is not the solution I want at all.

Doing this would destroy yet more of the local environment and destroy old Mt Barker for ever.

Not build the child care centre at this location?

Well that’s going to upset the people who have already signed the contract to buy the property and the existing property owners.

Close the intersection so drivers cannot try to turn left or right out of Memorial Drive into Bollen Road.

This would mean simply closing Memorial Drive at the Bollen Road end and turn that section of Memorial Drive into a court.

I suggest given the circumstances that this third solution is probably the most acceptable and would help make Bollen Road safer.

Though I’m sure there will be objections from some folk.

Bill Hankin, Mt Barker