by Virginia Simpson-Young, 6 May 2021 from Bulletin 3 of 2021
The childcare centre, Laurel Tree House, which has been operating in Glebe for almost 40 years, will be forced to close at the end of the year because the NSW Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) has decided to sell-off their building.
Many of you will know Laurel Tree House, located at 61 Arundel St, directly opposite the end of the Sydney Uni footbridge. Perhaps your children attended kindy there, or your grandchildren. Or perhaps you noticed it as you crossed into Glebe from the Sydney University footbridge across Parramatta Rd. Laurel Tree House is run by the not-for-profit, KU Children’s Services, who pays LAHC rent for the use of the building.
Parents were dumbfounded when they heard on 19 April that LAHC has told KU to vacate as they plan to sell off the building. In a letter to families of 23 April, KU Children’s Services CEO Christine Legg, confirmed the sell-off. KU Services investigated buying the kindy back from LAHC, but this was not a financial possibility. They’ve also looked for an alternative location, but that too has come to nothing.
The parents have mounted a vigorous campaign to stop the closure of their kindy, but they are up against Glebe’s biggest landlord, with a disturbing track record of closing down community facilities. If the parents’ campaign fails, then we say goodbye to another Glebe icon.
Please consider signing the parents’ petition to protect Laurel Tree House: http://chng.it/TZK5KjMWpq. . Also consider writing to the Premier.
2 comments. Please add yours.
This was a childcare centre in the early 1970s but I would need to chek who ran it then
It’s all about money and greed now, is’nt it.
The community’s needs, support for (have to) working mothers, the services and traditions an area like Glebe has built up over the years as a caring and unique society, all count for nothing when yet another ugly block of flats offer financial gain…number one priority now.