How parents overturned a preschool plan – and why it matters for Tacking Point

COMMUNITY pressure and persistence helped overturn a controversial preschool proposal at Umina Beach Public School.

The outcome should resonate strongly with hundreds of parents and residents opposing a similar development at Tacking Point Public School.

In what has become a powerful precedent for communities across NSW, determined parents and residents on the Central Coast showed that people power can reshape major government projects.

At Umina Beach, the successful campaign attracted just 534 petition signatures.

This is less than half the 1,300 signatures on the Tacking Point petition, which cites concerns about the loss of green space and impacts on local koala habitat.

Like Tacking Point, Umina Beach Public School was nominated as part of the NSW Government’s statewide rollout of 100 new preschools, a policy broadly supported by families.

Umina Beach P&C vice-president Sarah Lambkin said community backing for early education did not extend to a plan that would have consumed most of the school’s limited green space.

“To be clear, our community always supported the preschool and the opportunity it brings for families,” Lambkin told News Of The Area.

“It was never about opposing early learning.

“It was about the location and the way it was pushed through.”

Under the original proposal, a new preschool and car park were slated to take up about 80 per cent of the Kindergarten to Year 2 playground.

Parents raised concerns about impacts on younger students’ wellbeing and outdoor play.

The original Umina Beach proposal included places for 120 families, with up to 60 children attending at any one time. The Tacking Point plan is also for 60 places.

Lambkin said early consultation had initially occurred through a Project Reference Group representative – the school’s P&C president at the time – but that engagement suddenly stopped.

“All of a sudden, the plans changed and we were cut out of the process,” she said.

“We weren’t invited to meetings anymore.

“It became a bit of a ghost town trying to get information.”

Just before Easter 2025, and in the lead-up to the federal election, the project was publicly announced, followed a week later by the release of detailed site plans.

“We felt blindsided,” Lambkin said.

“Previously, there had been talk about repurposing existing classrooms.

“Then suddenly it was ‘no, no, it has to go on the green space’, and that just defied logic.”

Parents raised concerns about the loss of outdoor play space for younger students, the proposed car park, and the lack of meaningful consultation.

“There were other options within the school grounds,” Lambkin said.

“There are out-of-bounds areas and underutilised buildings.

“But those options were dismissed.”

After sustained pressure from the P&C and broader community, the Department of Education and School Infrastructure NSW reversed course about three months ago.

The preschool will now be delivered by repurposing existing classrooms, preserving the threatened green space and removing the need for an on-site car park.

The number of places for children has now fallen to 49.

“We’ve just started seeing the plans for that, and it makes far more sense,” Lambkin said.

“It’s what parents and the community were asking for from the beginning.”

She said the outcome was emotional for many involved, including school leadership.

“You could see the relief when the decision was overturned,” she said.

“Our principal was horrified at what the original plan would have done to the school.”

Gosford State Labor MP Liesl Tesch welcomed the outcome, saying the NSW Government had listened to the local community and worked with the school to ensure student learning would not be disrupted.

Asked to sum up the result, Lambkin was unequivocal.

“Common sense prevailed,” she said.

Her message to the Tacking Point community, now facing a similar battle, was equally clear.

“Don’t give up,” she said.

“Keep making it an issue.

“Keep it in everyone’s ear.

“People power does work.”

By Matt TAYLOR