Following the approval of 247 housing lots at Thornton and Louth Park there have been renewed calls for the State Government to invest in the area.
The developments and their applications across the two suburbs were approved at Tuesday's Maitland Council Meeting just weeks after 511 lots were approved for Defence Housing, also in Thornton.
Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison believes the approval of more housing developments goes to the very heart of why the State Government must invest in more infrastructure in the area, particularly in schools."We need to ensure that the government comes good on infrastructure. The government needs to invest in Maitland in schools and education in order to make sure these people who come to Maitland have adequate facilities," said MP Jenny Aitchison.
Census data shows there was a two percent population increase in Maitland between 2011 and 2016 with the numbers only going up. Maitland was also identified as a high growth area being the fastest growing outside of the Sydney metropolitan area.
MP Jenny Aitchison says the lack of housing affordability in Sydney, Newcastle and in other major centres, is pushing people to come to Maitland instead where there's relatively low cost housing compared to a lot of these areas.
"The development approved goes to the very heart of why we need this new hospital, why we need the government to be investing in schools. We will be working to get new schools into Maitland to get expansion of our existing schools to cope with that demand."
