The future of the Wollombi Public School premises remains uncertain, as Cessnock Councillor Paul Dunn lobbies to keep ownership of the property in local hands.
The state-owned school was shut down in late 2014 due to insufficient student numbers and is currently being curated by the Wollombi School Community Trust to facilitate community events such as art exhibits, markets and preschool services.
"As far as the Wollombi Community Trust goes, they've stated that in the last 12 months they've had over 300 uses of that land for the local community," Cr Dunn explains.
However, it is unknown whether the state government intends to retain the school property for these community uses or sell it off to a private buyer.
"The community deserve to have that facility kept in their hands," Cr Dunn continues,"If it does go into private ownership, there's no state and federal heritage listings, so there's no guarantee of the structure of the buildings remaining the same.
"I personally would love to see it stay in community hands, but unfortunately Cessnock Council isn't in a position to have the money to do anything for it."
Possible solutions envisioned by Cr Dunn include a 'peppercorn' lease- where land is rented at a minimal amount- between the state government and Council, or a donation of the land from the state government to allow Council to set up a sub-committee to run the Wollombi facilities.
"As long as there's no essential on-going costs folded back to the Council, we are more than happy to run with anything the state government are willing to offer us."
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| Cessnock Councillor, Paul Dunn. |
