Along with several other locals your scribe attended the informal TAFE information session at the Hub last week, where TAFE staff enthusiastically extolled the virtues of the proposed “Connected Learning Centre” for Grenfell.
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The new centre may well be all they claim, but he left with a couple of unanswered questions gnawing at him.
It seems someone in TAFE has decreed that 14 centres around the state are to be equipped with new standard-design structures replete with the latest in communications technology.
That all sounds fine for uniformity, but the downside is that the existing buildings in those 14 towns will most likely be made redundant (like Grenfell’s).
Had the decision-maker been spending his or her own money rather than the public’s, perhaps more consideration might have been given to the cost-benefit of the alternative of modifying the existing buildings.
After all, if the Henry Lawson High School can install high tech smart-boards and touch screens with internet capability, there seems no reason why TAFE couldn’t do likewise – if it wanted to.
In fact, one would think it must have to do exactly that, in all the other towns that are NOT getting a new building.
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Proximity to the CBD has been a recurring theme.
Your scribe was told this was to enable students to duck up town for a coffee or a meal, and would boost the local economy.
This would only be true if it is not happening already, but one suspects the relatively small expenditure involved would have little weight in the same overall cost-benefit analysis referred to above.
And when the word “heritage” was mentioned, the room went deathly quiet. Nobody wanted to discuss it.
The new TAFE centre will most likely be a useful acquisition for the town, although much of the justification is considered to be smoke and mirrors.
The other upshot is that Grenfell will soon have an abandoned building with little prospect for utilisation.
However, it seems this argument has been lost already.
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Surprisingly the TAFE representatives did not have the design plans which were only available at the Council Chambers where the development application is currently on public exhibition until 18 June.
These plans show a standard TAFE ultra-modern building with a flat roof and a considerable amount of metal cladding on the southern (George St) facade.
There was no indication of any sympathetic modification to better comply with council’s standards for buildings within the town’s defined Urban Conservation Area.
Residents who value the town’s heritage may care to inspect the DA for themselves and form their own opinion as to its suitability as presently proposed.
There is no question that a working TAFE college is needed and should be supported, but equally importantly there is a question as to whether Grenfell’s Urban Conservation Area will be adversely affected as an avoidable consequence.
Feather Duster No 3
T Lobb
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You can also check out the latest installment of Pollie Crackers at www.grenfellrecord.com.au