Council may move school to make space for park

Monte Cecilia has stunning harbour views. Photo / Martin Sykes

Auckland City ratepayers will pay up to $15 million to build a new primary school in Hillsborough under a deal being negotiated between Deputy Mayor David Hay and the Catholic Bishop of Auckland, Patrick Dunn.

Mr Hay wants to move Monte Cecilia primary school from its site at Monte Cecilia Park in Hillsborough to provide more open space around the historic Pah Homestead.

The $7.9 million restoration of the homestead to house the $50 million art collection of businessman James Wallace is a pet project of Mayor John Banks.

Under the deal, Mr Hay and council officers are offering to buy the 1ha school site and build a new school about 1km away on land at St John Vianney Church in Hillsborough Rd.

Mr Hay refused to comment on the likely cost to ratepayers, but Monte Cecilia school board of trustees chairman Duncan McGill said it could cost $10 million to $15 million to build a new school, including $2 million to $3 million for drainage and earthworks.

This is on top of the cost of buying the land.

Mr McGill said the school and parents supported the development of Monte Cecilia Park, but believed the school could happily coexist with council plans to turn the 14ha of green space into a premier park.

The Catholic primary school, which has occupied a site behind the Pah Homestead with stunning views to Manukau Harbour for more than 50 years, has about 220 pupils.

A survey of parents found 60 per cent supported keeping the school where it is.

Mr McGill said negotiations between the council and the Catholic diocese had proceeded without proper consultation with the school.

The diocese owns the land and has no formal tenancy agreement with the school.

The council has gradually been acquiring land for Monte Cecilia Park from the church since 2000 and has first right of refusal to buy the school land.

But the school board of trustees believes the council is pressuring the church to sell the land by threatening to compulsorily acquire it under the Public Works Act. Making matters worse for the school is a failed promise by the council in 2001 to lift a designation that prevents recovery of any capital investment by the diocese in the school from the time of the designation.

Mr Hay did not dispute that the council was in a Public Works Act acquisition situation or that the council had not lifted the designation.

He said the council deal was with the church, not the school.

It involved a memorandum of understanding agreement that had the effect of the Public Works Act of recompensing the church for the cost of land and relocating the school in five years.