By CASEY NEILL
AN abandoned and vandalised Noble Park school could be flattened within weeks, but its future remains unclear.
A spokeswoman for Education Minister Martin Dixon last week told the Journal a demolition contractor should be engaged before the end of June, and work at the former Southvale Primary School would start soon after.
This followed Lyndhurst MP Martin Pakula raising the matter in Parliament on 27 May, after first questioning Mr Dixon about it two months ago.
“It is a pigsty, it is a health hazard and it is attracting all the wrong elements to what is otherwise a quiet suburban area,” he said.
Glenda Green’s home backs onto the Athol Road site, which since closing in 2012 has become a magnet for drug use, fires, graffiti, smashed windows, broken furniture and rubbish.
She welcomed the news.
“Anything would be better than what you see now,” she said.
“It’s creating a place where people can go. There are syringes over there.
“There won’t be anywhere for them to hide.
“I think it would be wonderful if it could be turned into a park.”
The site has been declared surplus to Education Department requirements.
“Government requirements state that the department must first offer the property to other government departments, then to the local council, and then to the public,” Mr Dixon’s spokeswoman said.
She refused to confirm where the site was in the process.
